Supreme Court confirms illegality of lease of ponds in Odesa region

The Supreme Court has sided with the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office in cases involving the lease of land with ponds on the territory of the Lyubashivka village council.

According to the press service of the prosecutor's office, environmental prosecutors found that the local government, contrary to the requirements of the Land and Water Codes of Ukraine, had leased land plots with water bodies to entrepreneurs.

The parties claimed that the basis for the agreements was a permit for special water use in the form of irrigation. At the same time, they ignored the mandatory requirement to hold open land auctions, which should have provided the community with the most favorable conditions for using the property.

As a result, Krychuniv Ponds No. 1 and No. 2 and Adamivka Pond No. 1 were transferred to entrepreneurs without holding auctions.

The Supreme Court agreed with the prosecutor's arguments and confirmed that a water use permit and a land lease agreement with a water body are different legal instruments. Obtaining an irrigation permit does not give the right to bypass land auctions.

In early August, prosecutors also sent to court a case accusing a resident of Berezivskyi district of Odesa region of illegally seizing a layer of water fund land. The man was charged with illegal appropriation of the surface (soil) layer of water fund lands on a particularly large scale.

This is not the first time an artificial lake has been created without permits in Odesa Oblast. In February, in Bolhrad district, police brought to court the case of a farmer who had illegally created an artificial reservoir to irrigate his field. In September last year, a 37-year-old resident of the Budzhatska community used special equipment to dig a pond near the Chiligider River and fill it with its waters.

Кирило Бойко