Solar energy helps ensure continuous water supply in Sumy

When four-year-old Masha hears sounds of shelling, she screams: “That's it, let's run, let's hide!” She also knows that shelling means their water supply at home will be cut off. For her and many other children in Ukraine, water is now a precious resource. “We need it for drinking, bathing, washing our head and hands, and also for cooking something to eat,” she explains.

Masha lives with her mother Oksana and 16-year-old sister Katya in Sumy, a city close to the frontline. Since the escalation of the war in 2022, their lives have changed dramatically.

“If the electricity goes out after air strikes, we lose water, we lose connection, we lose everything. We cannot exist at all without electricity and water,” Oksana says.

Sumy has been affected by constant shelling which has damaged residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure like water supply networks. This periodically causes electricity and water supply interruptions in communities.

Living through war for more than three years already, Oksana's family has learned to be always prepared and ready for emergency situations. “We constantly collected water. We filled all the containers we had: six-liter bottles, buckets, the bathtub,” she shares. However, because of the volatility of the situation, their supply may not be enough for periods when there’s a power cut and, as a result, the water supply stops. No one knows when it will be restored or when the next shelling will occur and disrupt the water supply again.

The situation was even more difficult in the early days of the full-scale war. “When we had no electricity for a day, two, or three days, water utility workers brought us technical water using trucks. Even if it wasn’t potable and could only be used for domestic purposes, we all ran with bottles and buckets to get our supply,” Oksana recalls.

The situation began to gradually improve when Sumy’s municipal water utility partnered with UNICEF to strengthen the humanitarian response in the city. In 2025, under this partnership, hybrid solar power stations with batteries were installed at two key water intakes with financial support from the European Union. This enabled these facilities to generate electricity on their own and continue functioning during power outages.

"When there is no electricity in the grid even for a long period, solar-powered batteries enable cisterns to pump water to city districts,” says Oleksiy Zhukov, acting director of the water utility.

The water intakes with solar power stations, installed with support from the joint EU-UNICEF project, provide water to about 55,000 people in Sumy, including over 38,000 children. In addition to meeting people’s urgent water needs at home, the improved water supply system enables essential services like schools, kindergartens, hospitals and other health facilities, and emergency units like an ambulance station and fire trucks, to continue functioning.

“The last time there was an attack, we didn't even notice that we had no water. We had it thanks to the solar panels,” says Oksana.

UNICEF’s emergency response in Ukraine includes ensuring that children across the country have uninterrupted access to safe water to meet their basic needs. The solar-powered intakes in Sumy are examples of how innovative technologies can help ensure the health and survival of children, and support the critical services that they need during war.

In addition to the humanitarian response, UNICEF’s support to Ukraine’s water and sanitation sector includes leading the country’s water sector working group and building the capacity of the Ukrainian government and water utilities to strengthen and transform the country’s water supply system to align it with European Union standards.