Is it possible to effectively plan recovery without understanding how the community will develop in the future? How can we forecast the capacities of social and critical infrastructure, which is built for decades, without prior assessments of the community’s demographic situation, economic potential, and development prospects? The Ukraine Support Team coalition and partners have begun working on an economic modeling project for the recovery and development of the Borodianka community to address this issue.
As part of the UST coalition’s work, we have extensively assisted communities in prioritizing their recovery needs. In the context of war and limited resources, rebuilding everything at once is an unattainable task and, in some cases, impractical. Is it worth investing millions in rebuilding a school for 600 students if we don’t know how many children will study there in five years? How many hospital beds should the new hospital have?
The recovery process cannot be limited to the physical rebuilding of what was destroyed. To bring people back home, it must focus on strengthening and developing the economy.
Together with the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) and the Saturday Team consulting company, using Borodianka as an example, we aim to create an algorithm that will help communities determine the most promising and priority pathways for their economic development and recovery.
“It is very difficult to assess what needs to be rebuilt and where to invest effort and funds first when there is no understanding of how the community will develop under different circumstances. That is why we have undertaken a new ambitious project — economic modeling for community recovery and development. By developing economic scenarios for Borodianka, we hope to create a kind of checklist for other communities: what they need to know about themselves; how to plan their future; determine what needs to be restored and proposed to donors and potential investors,” says the head of the coalition, Olena Koltyk.
With the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, our team conducts an analysis of the economic and demographic state of the Borodianka community over different periods, identifies systemic problems, and possible ways to solve them. We will also study global and national trends that will impact the long-term development of communities.
Based on this data, our experts will model economic development scenarios up to 2030 and test them with residents, business representatives, and other stakeholders, selecting the most promising and suitable for the community.
We are confident that this approach will allow local governments to build a more effective management strategy and establish better communication with donors and potential investors, ensuring the community increases its capacity and develops sustainably.
The team of the ReThink NGO, a member of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, continues to investigate the situation on the ground as part of a project to develop recommendations for the debris management.
“It is already clear that the majority of opinions boil down to the use of crushed debris for filling roads or leveling the terrain. Now it is important to understand whether it is possible to use the generated waste for the production of more valuable products, for example, construction products,” says the head of the UST coalition Olena Koltyk.
General situation in the region
According to the Kyiv Regional State Administration, as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, 28,800 objects were damaged in the territory of the region, the vast majority of which are private and multi-storey buildings – 26,000 objects. Demolition waste is currently stored at 32 sites for temporary storage in various communities.
With the support of Ukraine’s international partners, a pilot project on the processing of debris is being implemented in the Kyiv region. As part of cooperation, the region has already received 30 units of specialized equipment. According to Kyiv RSA data, three construction waste processing lines are planned to be launched in the region: a stationary one in Borodyanka and two mobile ones.
What is the situation on the ground?
In Bucha, debris is stored at a specially designated site. According to Yaroslav Duchenko, head of the Urban Improvement Inspection, the rubble of 130 buildings and one section of a high-rise building has already been dismantled in the city. The total volume of debris that reached the site of storage is 75,000 cubic meters. Most of it is concrete and bricks (about 51 thousand m³), as well as asbestos-containing materials (about 8 thousand m³). The main mass of debris is not sorted.
“Volumes, we estimate tentatively. We think they are 80% accurate. Of course, it would be more correct to sort them right on the spot, but the first sortings were simply taken out in bulk, as it was. Because it had to be done quickly, there were neither enough people nor enough time. The question was as follows: quickly disassemble, demolish on a pile, somewhere it was sorted, somewhere not – the equipment drives up and takes it away and the rebuilding process begins immediately”, explains Yaroslav Duchenko.
In Borodyanka, work on the dismantling of destroyed buildings is still ongoing, and sorted debris is stored at a special site, says the first deputy head of the village, Dmytro Negresha. Currently, negotiations are ongoing regarding the installation of a processing line nearby.
“We are left with 15 private houses and three sections in high-rise buildings that need to be dismantled. Recently, an entire 9-story building was dismantled in the center, concrete and bricks were crushed on the spot. They managed to dismantle and remodel the house in a week,” says Dmytro Negresha.
Near the village of Gorenka, ReThink experts discovered places of unauthorized dumping of hazardous waste from demolitions. In particular, a dirt road covered with crushed asbestos-containing slate, which is land pollution and a violation of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Project “Rethink: Recommendations for Debris Management on the Frontlines” is a part of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
