The Netherlands to Support Development of Ukrainian Waterways

Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Ukraine, Kees Klompenhouwer, representatives of the Embassy and Dutch companies recently visited Mykolaiv region to explore the possibilities of cooperation on development of ports in Mykolaiv and Kherson.

During the visit Oleksiy Vadaturskyy, NIBULON’s General Director, told the dignitaries about problems and solutions in the development of inland waterways and river transport in Ukraine.

“At present NIBULON is actively dredging the Southern Buh River at its expense and it is redirecting its cargoes to river transport. Thus, we have already dredged 134 km of the Southern Buh River to 2.4 m depth at our own expense,” said Vadaturskyy.

“The company plans to dredge the Dnipro River to 3.65 m. We bought high-capacity dredgers and a hydraulic hammer. In spring we will have the opportunity to start dredging the Dnipro River without the state support. This is a very complicated issue as, for example, to dredge the Southern Buh River we spent 5 years to obtain 47 permits.  The situation with the Dnipro River is similar. We have been trying to obtain permits for dredging for 5 years”, added Vadaturskyy.

The member of the Dutch delegation, Project manager and Senior expert of Witteveen+Bos, Robero Zanetti, was impressed by NIBULON’s achievements in development of inland waterways.

“What I saw here gives evidence that much has already been done. In my opinion, NIBULON made the greatest contribution to the development of river transport in Ukraine. However, the other companies which also use the Dnipro River have to join NIBULON,” said Zanetti.

At the end of the meeting, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Ukraine Kees Klompenhouwer said that the Netherlands will support NIBULON and will help to solve the problems in development of inland waterways in Ukraine.