Access to drinking water and environmental issues: Ukrainian auditors presented their work results at the INTOSAI WGEA meeting

The issues of ensuring access to high-quality drinking water, the effectiveness of environmental management in wartime, pollution of the marine environment and new areas of activity in the field of auditing were discussed during the 23rd meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (INTOSAI WGEA),which took place on July 1-3 in the Republic of Malta.

Ukraine was represented at the meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing by the Head of the Department of Control in the Field of Natural Resources Use and Environmental Protection of the Department of Control (Audit) in the Field of Energy, Environmental Management and Infrastructure of the Accounting Chamber, Lilia Prudivus, and the State Auditor, Dmytro Lyvkivsky.

During the first day of the event, participants focused on the topics of marine pollution, providing the population with high-quality drinking water, and the problems of droughts and desertification. The second day, in the format of parallel sessions, dealt with environmental challenges. In particular,  Lilia Prudivus presented the results of the national audit of the effectiveness of measures aimed at achieving Goal 6 "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water resources and sanitation" of the Sustainable Development Goals of Ukraine for the period up to 2030, conducted within the framework of a joint coordinated audit with the SAIs of the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Croatia and Hungary (audit coordinator). As a reminder, the national audit, in particular, confirmed that the access of the Ukrainian population to high-quality drinking water is limited: about 65.2% of the population was provided with centralized water supply at the time of the audit.

Also during her speech, Lilia Prudivus discussed the complex problems that Ukraine is overcoming in the context of a full-scale war.

Within the scope of the topic of accessibility of drinking water, the participants also heard the results of audits presented by the supreme audit institutions of the Republic of India, the Republic of Slovenia, and the People's Republic of China. It was about the effectiveness of long-term conservation of water resources, adherence to the principles of science-based auditing and the concept of systems thinking, as well as river conservation.

During the meeting, the participants paid special attention to the regional activities and results of the projects of the INTOSAI WGEA Work Plan for 2023-2025. The WGEA Action Plan for 2026-2028 was approved, structured around three main themes: climate, water resources and environmental pollution.  

At the end of the meeting, the chairmanship of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing was transferred. The authority was transferred from the SAI of the Republic of Finland to the SAI of the Kingdom of Thailand.

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