The mayor of Bucha is returning from Seoul, where he spent two working days at the Global Infrastructure Cooperation Conference 2026 at the invitation of Kim Yun-duk, the Republic of Korea's Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Anatolii Fedoruk reported the results on his page. The purpose of the trip was new infrastructure projects for the Bucha water utility, covering both water supply and wastewater. One of them the community has been pursuing with Korean partners since 2023: a full sewerage system with a treatment plant of its own, and the first big stage on that road is already complete.
Anatolii FedorukMayor of BuchaOur partners KEITI, Yooshin and Dohwa, with the support of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment of the Republic of Korea, have already completed a pre-feasibility study for creating a full-fledged sewerage system in the Bucha community.
Now, the mayor writes, the community is working to give the project a practical continuation. That is what he talked about at his meetings in Seoul. Fedoruk is returning, in his words, with concrete groundwork, new contacts and an understanding of how to move these projects forward for the Bucha community.
Who was at the table: Samsung, K-water, KIND
In his post the mayor lists whom he talked to: Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, Dohwa Engineering, Yooshin Engineering, Seoul Guarantee Insurance, Samsung C&T, Soosung Engineering and Construction Guarantee Cooperative. These are design engineers, builders and guarantee institutions: alongside Yooshin and Dohwa, which have already completed the pre-feasibility study for Bucha together with KEITI, and K-water, the community's water-supply partner, the table included the construction companies Samsung C&T and Ssangyong and two guarantee institutions, Seoul Guarantee Insurance and Construction Guarantee Cooperative.
A separate meeting was held with KIND, the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation. It is a Korean state corporation that prepares, finances and delivers international infrastructure projects, and it is in its reports that the status of the Bucha project is tracked. The post gives no specific dates or sums. Judging by the list of counterparts, from KIND, a financier of international projects, to builders and guarantee institutions, Seoul was about the next stage of a project that has already been prepared on both sides.
Photo: Anatolii FedorukA conference where Bucha was invited as a client
The Conrad hotel in Seoul's Yeouido district, 15 to 17 September. This is the fourteenth Global Infrastructure Cooperation Conference, held every year since 2013. Its host is Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, its organiser the International Contractors Association of Korea (ICAK). Its stated purpose is to help Korean construction companies expand abroad through contacts with project owners. Around 500 participants from 32 countries were expected this year, ministers, deputy ministers and company executives among them; the theme was infrastructure cooperation together with artificial intelligence.
Fedoruk is listed among the conference's confirmed guests as the mayor of Bucha from Ukraine. In other words, among five hundred participants Bucha sits on the other side of the table: not a contractor but a client, exactly the kind of partner Korean construction companies come here to find. And a well-prepared client at that, with a site set aside, documents ready and a pre-feasibility study already evaluated in Korea.
Photo: Anatolii FedorukWhy the community needs a treatment plant of its own
One fact explains why water became the main subject of the trip. Wastewater from Bucha and Vorzel is today piped to Kyiv, to the Bortnychi aeration station. Back in September 2023 Fedoruk described the pipelines as running under colossal overload, with breakdowns from time to time. In January 2026 he added that the project is not only about a new treatment plant but also about fully replacing the sewer networks, since on average 60–70% of Ukraine's sewerage infrastructure is worn out. That is why the community is pursuing a plant of its own.
The community completed its own part of the groundwork back in 2023. The city set aside the land for the future plant: a 7-hectare site in Bucha. The design paperwork was prepared too: in summer 2023 the municipal enterprise Buchaservis signed a contract with YUTEM-Engineering LLC, and on 29 December that year the city council announced that the feasibility study for the new treatment plant was complete. So on the Ukrainian side both the land and the documents are ready. The construction itself, under the 2023 agreements, was to be paid for with Korean grant money.
How Bucha made Korea's short list
Koreans, in Fedoruk's words, were among the first to come to Bucha after the de-occupation. In June 2022 the city was visited by a parliamentary delegation led by Lee Jun-seok, leader of the ruling People Power Party, and on 15 July 2023 by President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee. The mayor wrote at the time that Korea would propose reconstruction projects for Ukraine worth 52 billion dollars. Two months later Bucha was on the short list of those projects.
On 15 September 2023 the government of the Republic of Korea announced "six leading projects" for Ukraine's reconstruction, and alongside a transport master plan for Kyiv and the modernisation of Boryspil airport, the list included a wastewater treatment plant for Bucha. KEITI was named the implementing agency. The day before, on 14 September, Fedoruk had presented the project at the Ukraine–Korea business forum in Kyiv.
On 23 November 2023 in Seoul, Bucha, KEITI and Ukraine's Ministry for Communities Development signed a trilateral memorandum. It provided for grant financing, an estimated cost of over 10 million dollars, the already allocated 7-hectare site and up to three years for design and construction. Fedoruk called it the future first new treatment plant built in Ukraine since independence. The next day a second memorandum was signed with K-water, covering the Bucha Techno Garden industrial park and water supply across the community.
Then came the Korean part of the work on the plant: in July 2025 a Korean feasibility study was launched under the feasibility-study support programme of Korea's Ministry of Environment. On 11 August 2025 a delegation from Yooshin, the company that received a government grant for the work, inspected all facilities of the Bucha water utility. And in January 2026 KEITI prepared a pre-investment feasibility study for the community, the very "pre-feasibility study" the mayor is talking about today.
Who is who in this story
- KEITI, the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute. A state institution created in 2009 by merging two government agencies; it works on environmental technologies and the green industry. On the Korean side it is responsible for Bucha's treatment plant.
- KIND, the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation. A public corporation founded in June 2018 to support Korean companies' projects abroad, from planning to financing and operation. Its reports track the status of the Bucha project.
- K-water, the Korea Water Resources Corporation, Korea's only state water corporation, operating since 1967. Bucha's partner on water supply and the Bucha Techno Garden industrial park: back in 2023 the plans included four clean-water reservoirs with treatment stations, 17 additional wells and the replacement of water mains, and in June 2024 the Koreans allocated almost a million dollars for planning the park.
- Yooshin and Dohwa, engineering companies that carried out the pre-feasibility study together with KEITI; Yooshin did so under a Korean government grant.
- The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the name since October 2025 of Korea's former Ministry of Environment, whose programme financed the study.
Photo: Anatolii FedorukThe next stage is the investment stage
A pre-feasibility study, or Pre-F/S in the Korean side's reports, is a pre-investment document. In January Fedoruk put its role simply: a basic document without which large international financing from the Korean government is impossible. In other words, it is the foundation on which the next stage is to be built. In KIND's reports the Bucha project is listed as the development of a plan for installing the treatment plant, with KEITI in charge; the April report marks this stage as completed: the final evaluation of the Pre-F/S results was done in January 2026, and the Korean side will decide on the next stage after monitoring the situation on the ground.
So since the 2023 memorandum the preparatory work has been done on both sides: there is a site, a Ukrainian feasibility study and a Korean pre-feasibility study. The next step is a financing decision, and that is what the Seoul trip works towards: talks with those on whom the continuation depends, from KIND to K-water. That is why his list of meetings puts builders and guarantee institutions next to the design engineers, the people without whom construction does not begin. This is what the road from paperwork to the building site looks like.
The project's road: 2023 to 2026
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 15.07.2023 | President Yoon Suk-yeol of Korea visits Bucha |
| 15.09.2023 | Korea's government puts Bucha's treatment plant on its list of "six leading projects" for Ukraine's reconstruction; KEITI is the implementing agency |
| 23.11.2023 | Bucha–KEITI–Ministry for Communities Development memorandum in Seoul: grant, over 10 million dollars, a 7-hectare site, design and construction within three years |
| 24.11.2023 | Memorandum with K-water: Bucha Techno Garden and water supply for the community |
| 29.12.2023 | YUTEM-Engineering completes the Ukrainian feasibility study for the new treatment plant |
| 06–07.06.2024 | K-water delegation in Bucha; almost 1 million dollars for planning Bucha Techno Garden |
| July 2025 | Korean feasibility study starts under the programme of Korea's Ministry of Environment |
| 11.08.2025 | Yooshin delegation inspects the Bucha water utility's facilities |
| January 2026 | KEITI prepares the pre-feasibility study; final evaluation of the Pre-F/S completed |
| April 2026 | KIND report: the pre-feasibility stage marked "completed", decision on the next stage after monitoring the situation on the ground |
| 15–17.09.2026 | GICC 2026 in Seoul: meetings with K-water, KIND and companies; the goal is a "practical continuation" |
Photo: Anatolii FedorukAlongside the sewerage project the community is also pushing water supply: back in January Fedoruk mentioned a request to the European Investment Bank for a new water main. As a reminder, Bucha is already starting to build almost 20 kilometres of water main across five settlements.
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