Facing drought and the collapse of ageing irrigation systems, the government is drawing up a law to transfer irrigation pumping stations to private hands under public private partnership concessions

Facing drought and the collapse of ageing irrigation systems, the government is drawing up a law to transfer irrigation pumping stations to private hands under public private partnership concessions, Ihor Petrashko, Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, said last week on a visit to drought-stricken Kherson. The government’s ‘Big Construction’ program, currently limited to highways and bridges, will be expanded to include restoring Soviet-era irrigation systems.