Chronology

On June 29, 1995 a torrential rain flooded streets of Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Sometime after the rain the Dikanyovka waste water treatment plant was flooded as well, since it was designed to collect water from city's storm drain

Storm drain

A storm drain, storm sewer , stormwater drain or drainage well system or simply a drain or drain system is designed to drain excess rain and ground water from paved streets, parking lots, sidewalks, and roofs. Storm drains vary in design from small residential dry wells to large municipal systems...

s along with sewage. This resulted in spill of polluted and untreated water into the nearby Udy River

Udy River

The Uda or Udy River is a river that rises in Belgorod Oblast of Russia and runs through Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine before entering the Seversky Donets near Chuguyev. Its length is 164 km. The drainage basin occupies 3890 km2. The second largest city of Ukraine, Kharkiv, stands at the confluence of...

. To prevent further spillage, the local authorities stopped tap water supply for the entire city until water was pumped out of the flooded well and pumps were replaced. It took about a month to resume supply of treated tap water. During this period the local authorities established limited drink water distribution to organizations (including hospitals) and population. Drinking water was brought up by tank trucks to designated areas for distribution. Several international organizations including NATO stepped up to help. In fact, this was the first cooperation between NATO and Ukraine.

Aftermath

The government had to privatize a few local state-owned plants and factories in order to get funds to make necessary improvements.