On June 10, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading the draft law No. 7577 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts on Improving the Management System of State-Owned Engineering Infrastructure Facilities of Land Reclamation Systems". The document was developed by experts from the Ukrainian Agri Council, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the USAID AGRO Program.

The main objective of the law is to replace the form of management of the Soviet system of land reclamation systems, which is carried out by budget organizations, with the management of operators - state non-profit enterprises. The new form of management will allow attracting investments to modernize the hydrotechnical reclamation systems. Supervisory boards of Operators will be established to ensure transparency of management. They will include representatives of the state, Water Users’ Organizations actively created by farmers, and independent experts selected on a competitive basis. The draft law aims to reduce state budget expenditures by making reclamation system operators self-sufficient within three years of the operator's establishment.

This way, hydrotechnical reclamation will no longer be a budgetary burden and will take into account the interests of the state and agricultural producers.

In addition, the document takes into account international experience in terms of tariff setting. A two-rate tariff for water supply and sewage services will be introduced:

• a fixed rate - payment for the maintenance of irrigation systems,
• a variable rate - payment for the volume of water consumed or discharged.

The variable component of the tariff is set in proportion to the volume of water consumed and covers the direct costs of supplying water to water users, which encourages: increasing the energy efficiency of pumping equipment and introducing water-saving technologies of irrigation. This will ensure fair and clear pricing for irrigation services and efficient use of resources.

The adoption of this law is an important component of achieving the goals of the government's Irrigation and Drainage Strategy in Ukraine until 2030. The basis for the introduction of the provisions of the law on Land Reclamation Network Operators was the adoption of the law on the Organization of Water Users, developed with the participation of the UAC. Its provisions allowed farmers to unite and manage the systems that supply water to the field. To date, 20 WUOs have been registered in different regions of the country.