On April 20, the staff of the United National Development Programme, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Municipal Economy, the Ministry of Infrastucture and Kyiv  Municipal State Administration supported spring tradition to clean-up jointly the streets, parks and recreation zones in municipalities and settlements across Ukraine.

The Clean-up devoted to the Earth Day was held in Shevchenko Park in Kyiv. The participants included

Ricarda Rieger, UNDP Resident Representative a.i.,

Oleksandr Vilkul, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Kozak, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Genndiy Temnyk, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine and Oleksandr Popov, Head of Kyiv Municipal State Administration.

 “The Earh Day is an important day because globally in every country of the world you remember Earth Day. It is just one day but it is important to remember that we have just one planet, and we have to educate ourselves and our children to take care  of the planet  by cleaning-up, by planting trees and by thinking of what we can do during other 364 days every year”, said Ricarda Rieger.

The citizens were encouraged to participate in the All-Ukrainian Clean-Up.  UNDP in Ukraine in partnership with the Ukrainian Government, business and civil society has been implementing a number of successful projects related to water resources, aimed at elaboration of better environmental policies, rehabilitation of natural water springs, introduction of modern technologies for waste water purification of the enterprises, supporting local communities` initiatives for reconstruction of water supply systems and raising the ecologic awareness the children.

Similar clean-ups in context of  International Year of Water Cooperation  were supported by UNDP in all regions of Ukraine.  2013 was declared by the United Nations General Assembly the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation. The objective of this International Year is to raise awareness, both on the potential for increased cooperation, and on the challenges facing water management in light of the increase in demand for water access, allocation and services.

Under support of the joint UNDP and Coca-Cola company (under support of TM “BonAqua”) Project “Every Drop Matters” the clean-ups were held in partner municipalities of Ivano-Frankivsk, Dzhankoy (AR Crimea) and planned in Novograd-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr Region). In Ivano-Frankivsk the  SCO "Centre for Municipal and Regional Development - Resource Center" took an active part in a clean-up jointly with the Department of Family, Youth and Gender of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council and youth NGOs. More than 50 participants cleaned the banks of the river Bystrytsya Solotvynska where local  residents like to spend leisure time.

In Dzhankoy the bank of the Stepova River was cleaned.

In Novograd-Volynskiy,  100 schoolchildren and teachers are expected to  participate in the clean-up on  April 29. It is planned to clean the territory around 6 local springs.

In addition to raise the awareness on International Year of Water Cooperation, the lectures for the schoolchildren will be held in tree municipalities.