Background. The Dniester River is facing severe environmental problems due to man-made pollution.
Aim. The purpose of the review is hygienic assessment of sources of pollution of the river Dniester.
Material and methods. There was conducted bibliometric and qualimetric analysis of available literature on the issue, the official report of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine for 2011–2016.
Results and discussion. The Dniester is the largest river of Western Ukraine and Moldova and together with the Danube, the Dnieper and the Southern Bug belong to large catchment rivers of the Black Sea basin. Its basin covers significant parts of the territories of seven regions of Ukraine and most of the territory of the Republic of Moldova. In the adjacent territories of Ukraine and Moldova live more than 7 million people, including more than 5.0 million people — on the territory of Ukraine. Outside the basin, Dniester’s water is consumed by another 3.5 million people, including residents of the cities of Chernivtsi and Odessa.
It’s shown that reaching the borders of the Odessа region the river Dniester is heavily polluted by industrial enterprises and towns that are sewage from nearby. The existing reservoir on the river are located on major tributaries (p. Seret, Lime Gold, Zbruch, Klodnytsya, Muraorka), used mainly to energy purposes and irrigation and the quality of river water were not significantly affected. In the Odessa region there are no significant sources of pollution of the Dniester. Adjacent to the coast, mainly agricultural area, there are no large enterprises and other powerful sources of the contamination.
Dniester River with its tributaries covers a large area and flows through densely populated areas. Its water is widely used for water supply to the population. As neighboring territories mainly agricultural, it can be assumed that in the summer the entire length of the river increases organic matter content as compared to winter.
Conclusion. There were identified and analyzed the existing major sources of pollution of the Dniester River along its entire length. The perspectives of further development of complex water conservation measures to improve water quality.