A big drain of money

More than half a billion has been spent on sewer repairs, and Odesa is likely to continue to be flooded.

More than three months have passed since the catastrophic flooding in Odesa that killed nine people, including an eight-year-old child. Nine officials, including former mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, have been suspected of negligence. On December 23, 2025, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv extended Trukhanov's preventive measure for another month in the form of round-the-clock house arrest. But so far, no one has announced even the interim results of the investigation or the conclusions of any specialized commissions. There has been no attempt to publicly answer the question of why this happened and whether it can happen again.

Intent tried to answer this question, and we found out who is responsible for the state of Odesa's stormwater system. We also discovered that over the past 10 years, more than half a billion hryvnias have been invested in stormwater repairs in different parts of the city. That is, there were repairs, but they did not prevent the tragedy of September 30. We were looking for an answer as to why.

The aftermath of the disaster: top and bottom views

As a reminder, on September 30, 2025, 286 private houses and 384 apartment buildings were flooded in Odesa. The Kyivskyi district suffered the most. Roads and utility networks were severely damaged. The operational headquarters of district administrations recorded 782 appeals from Odesa residents about flooding, fallen trees, power outages and property damage. Hennadiy Trukhanov, then mayor of Odesa, said this in a video message on October 1.

According to the State Emergency Service, rescuers spent almost a day eliminating the consequences of the storm, rescuing 362 people and evacuating 227 cars. Nine people died. Five of them drowned in a house on the ground floor in Sergei Eisenstein Lane. Nearby, on Rybalska Street, a young woman drowned in a stream of water. The body of another victim was found on the neighboring Dacha Kovalevsky Street.

IMAGE: Intent

Immediately after the deadly downpour, a local resident, Yevhen Lata, went down to one of Odesa's collectors on Balkivska Street, which often suffers from flooding during rains and where two more victims of the flood were found. He showed us that the side pipes of the sewer were filled with garbage. It is not surprising that the collector could not cope with a powerful downpour in this condition.

Artem Kasparyan, co-founder of the human rights NGO Common Purpose, told Intent that a few weeks before the deadly storm, city residents filed a complaint about an emergency stormwater pier in the 16th district of the Velykyi Fontan station , near Rybalska Street, Dacha Kovalevsky and Eisenstein Lane, where most people died. A city commission was sent to the site, but officials could not even determine whose responsibility it was to repair the building. Consequently, no repairs were made.

The same emergency pier. The residential complex "Space on Mayachne" was built nearby. PHOTO: Olena Chernysheva

The balance of responsibility

Instead, Intent found out who is responsible for what. For example, the storm sewer system of Odesa has been on the balance sheet of the Municipal Enterprise "City Roads" since 2013. At the same time, according to the utility's response, the company has not carried out any repairs to the storm sewer systemover the past ten years.

"Funding for the repair of the city's stormwater drainage system in the period from 2015 to 2025 was not approved and no funds were allocated to Municipal Roads," is the official response of the utility company, which is the balance sheet holder of the entire city sewer system.

That is, the company that should have answers to all questions about the state of this city system has done nothing to keep the stormwater system functioning for 10 years - they did not have the money to do so.

But! It turns out that the money for the repair of the stormwater system did come from the budget, but through other departments. According to the response of the Odesa City Department of Capital Construction, over the past 10 years, 10 tenders have been held for stormwater repairs in the city, totaling more than 600 million hryvnias, seven of which were won by Rostdorstroy. The company is co-owned by Yurii Shumacher, a member of the Odesa City Council from the former mayor's party "Trust the Deeds" . Two more went to Technoproekt, a small private enterprise, and one to Eco-Sepro LLC. We will talk about these companies below. But first, let's talk about how the repaired areas "coped" with the rains on the tragic day for Odesa.

Chikalenko Street. 30 million hryvnias. 7 dead nearby

The overhaul of the stormwater system at the intersection of the former Williams Street (now Chykalenko Street) and Heavenly Hundred Avenue was completed in 2019. The cost of the work was over UAH 30 million. However, on September 30, 2025, Chykalenko Street was blocked for some time due to flooding. Part of Heavenly Hundred Avenue was also blocked due to flooding. A few blocks away from Chykalenko Street, water claimed the lives of seven people.

IMAGE: Intent

Turystska Street. 25 million hryvnias. Flooding.

In 2016, the construction of storm and sanitary sewers on Turistska Street was completed. The amount of work amounted to UAH 25 million. On September 30 last year, Vadaturska Street, a few blocks away from the newly constructed sewer , was experiencing difficulty driving due to flooding.

IMAGE: Intent.

Novoarkadiyskyi collector. UAH 200 million, with another UAH 120 million worth of work planned. Flooding

Work is still underway to overhaul the Novoarkadiyske collector. The project has been implemented in several stages since 2016. For example, the section from Genoese Street to the final outlet to the sea was repaired for UAH 60 million, and from Genoese Street to Champagne Lane for UAH 137.5 million . Currently, works are underway in the sea part. Their cost is UAH 121 million. At the same time, the Arcadia neighborhood regularly suffers from flooding after the reconstruction of the central alley. In September 2025, the then-mayor Gennady Trukhanov inspected the work and said that the collector would be tested. On September 30, Arcadia was flooded, and the new collector failed.

Retaining wall on Balkivska Street. 8 million hryvnias. Two people drowned.

At the request of the Odesa Department of Capital Construction, in 2024-2025, the surface drainage system and retaining wall within Balkivska, Dyukivska streets and Stepan Oliynyk descent were overhauled. The work cost taxpayers UAH 8 million. On September 30, two people died in a downpour on Balkivska Street.

The contract was carried out by Eco-Sepro LLC. The company has already signed a number of contracts totaling more than UAH 60 million. At the same time, the legal address of the company is currently an ordinary Odesa apartment, which coincides with the address of the current founder of the company, Serhiy Nadutyk. In 2012, a judge of the Khadzhibey District Court found Nadutyk guilty of theft. Before that, he was convicted three times under various criminal articles, and in 2022, an administrative report was drawn up against him for stealing two cans of canned food on the ill-fated Balkivska Street.

Not only stormwater

But in addition to work directly related to the drainage system, Odesa has carried out a number of multimillion-dollar repairs of streets and highways, taking into account the drains. In particular, Rostdorstroy LLC repaired Devolanivskyi Descent from 2019 to 2024. As part of the project, the company renovated the stormwater collector under the descent. The work cost taxpayers more than UAH 256 million.

In 2015, Rostdorstroy also completed the reconstruction of the road from Marselskaya Street to Dniprodoroga (now called Semena Paliya Street). The work here also included the installation of a stormwater drainage system. However, on September 30, traffic on Marselska Street was hampered.

In addition, the storm sewer, in particular on Marselska Street, was repaired as part of the reconstruction of the Sakharova Street road in 2015. At that time, Technoproekt performed two repairs on Sakharova Street with a total cost of over UAH 58 million.

Technoproekt was registered back in 2002, and since 2016, the company has received budget contracts totaling about UAH 50 million. The company is affiliated with the aforementioned Rostdorstroy enterprise. "Technoproekt is one of the founders of Rostgrankarier LLC, whose director is Yevgeny Konovalov, a co-founder of Rostdorstroy LLC. It is noteworthy that the legal address of Technoproekt is 1a Genoese Street. Former Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov lives in the neighborhood. It was allegedly in the parking lot of this residential complex that Trukhanov was suspected of negligence for the flood in the city.

Sea, sewage and balance again

Another important part of the city's stormwater system is the system of drains to the sea. It is partially on the balance sheet of the Department of Engineering Protection of the City Territory and Coastal Development of the Odesa City Council, namely the gutters and storm drains from Lanzheron Beach to the Chkalov Sanatorium, as well as storm drains on the Big Fountain coast.

In the period from 2015 to 2022, the department carried out only four repairs of stormwater trays for a total of UAH 3.2 million. According to the department's response, no repairs have been carried out since 2022.

A storm sewer adit in the coastal area of Velykyi Fontan. PHOTO: Olena Chernysheva

For example, Prokhodchik LLC restored the drainage of the outer tray of the adit near the 14th station of the Bolshoi Fontan for UAH 86 thousand. The company was registered in 2012. Until 2018, Prokhodchik LLC regularly received contracts from the Odesa Department of Engineering Protection of the City and Coastal Development.

In 2016, the company overhauled stormwater drainage trays for almost a million hryvnias. The work was carried out by Interstroy LLC. Since 2016, the company has entered into a number of contracts for budgetary funds , most of them with the city administration. It is noteworthy that the owner of the LLC is Ivan Agbash. A person with the same name is one of the co-founders of the NGO "Marynivska Palanka". The other co-founder of the organization is Ihor Bodelan, the nephew of former Odesa MayorRuslanBodelan and cousin of VolodymyrBodelan, a suspected collaborator currently living in Russia .

In 2019, Underwater Professionals LLC carried out two repairs of stormwater drainage trays in the area of the 8th and 10th stations of the Velykyi Fontan with a total cost of two million hryvnias. The company often executes contracts for budgetary funds. At the same time, one of the company's co-founders , Oleksii Plotkin, has been a defendant in a case of embezzlement of budget funds since 2021. The court has not yet passed a verdict in the case after four years of proceedings. In addition to Plotkin, the head of the Odesa branch of the Guild of Engineers for Technical Supervision of Construction of Architectural Objects, Telman Marchenko, is also a defendant in this case. Despite the trial related to the corruption case, in 2025, Underwater Professionals LLC signed three contracts with the Odesa Department of Engineering Protection of the City Territory and Coastal Development.

Planned expenditures

It is worth recalling that the state of the Odesa city storm sewer system is supposed to be the responsibility of the Municipal Enterprise "City Roads". However, the city's capital construction department continues to allocate funds for future repairs. Thus, in November 2025, under the new city leadership, it announced two tenders for the reconstruction of an emergency stormwater collector on Balkivska Street for UAH 226 million and the reconstruction of a buffer pond to Shchegoleva Street for UAH 131 million. In addition, a project for the reconstruction of the collector on Promyslova Street is planned to be developed for UAH 4.2 million. But will these repairs solve the problem of flooding in the neighborhood?

According to David Pishchev, PhD in architecture and urbanist, it is necessary to rebuild the entire water treatment system and the entire stormwater system. However, this is a large and extremely expensive infrastructure project that needs to be done as a whole for the entire city. In addition, climate change needs to be taken into account.

"Our climate is changing, and no one was prepared for it. We are having more rainstorms, they are becoming more powerful and longer. At the same time, it does not rain as often as it used to. Odesa has a single stormwater sewage system; we do not have separate stormwater and domestic sewage systems. This is an old system that was built in imperial times and only modernized in the Soviet Union. And it cannot cope with such a volume of water. It was made for the needs that existed in the past. We have the problem that the sewage system is not cleaned enough, not prepared enough. But we have never had such heavy rains before, " says Pishchev.

This is confirmed by forecasters. They note that since 2015, 14 cases of heavy rain have been recorded in Odesa - rainfall of 50 to 100 mm in 12 hours or less, whereas in previous decades it was only 2-3 cases per 10 years.

In addition, experts emphasize that urbanization increases the risks, as a large share of asphalt and concrete turns rain into rapid, high-volume water flows.

Environmentalist Vladyslav Mykhailenko talks about climate change and the resulting heavy rains:

"The seas are essentially absorbers of excess heat that is increasing in the environment. Few people believe that intense downpours can become commonplace for Odesa, but these processes are already happening, and they are directly related to the Black Sea and its heating. As the Black Sea warms, evaporation increases."

Thus, although over the past ten years Odesa has carried out a series of repairs to storm sewers and drains, sometimes spending tens or even hundreds of millions of hryvnias, it seems that the problem of flooding has not even begun to be addressed comprehensively. There are also questions about the quality of the work paid for by taxpayers, because despite the repairs, flooding is regularly recorded in just a few blocks. And this is against the backdrop of chaotic construction in the city. At the same time, experts note that the old storm sewer system does not meet modern challenges. So, without a comprehensive approach, Odesa, unfortunately, will continue to face flooding.

This publication was made with the support of the program "Stronger Together: Media and Democracy" program implemented by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in partnership with the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine (ARPU) and the Norwegian Media Business Association (MBL) with support from Norway. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the program partners.

Олена Чернишова