The destruction of a dam in Ukraine could result in farmland in the south of the country turning into “deserts”, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has warned.
Video footage of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power-plant dam on Tuesday (June 6) showed water surging through the structure built in the Soviet era.
Preliminary estimates predict that 10,000ha of agricultural land on the right bank of the Kherson region will be flooded.
The ministry is predicting that “several times more” hectares of farmland will be flooded on the left bank of the region which is under the control of Russian forces.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up the dam which is located in a Russian-controlled area on the frontline of the war in the Kherson region. However, Russia is blaming Ukraine for the incident.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said said that the destruction of the dam has resulted in “hundreds of thousands of people” being left without normal access to drinking water.
“We can only help on the territory controlled by Ukraine. On the part occupied by Russia, the occupiers are not even trying to help people,” he in a social media post.
Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said that over 1,700 people have been evacuated from areas impacted by the dam collapse.
He called on international organisations to help with the evacuation of people from occupied territories.
Ukraine
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine said that work is continuing on assessing the full impact of the dam breach on farmland.
It said that the water supply has been cut to 31 irrigation systems in fields in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these systems provided irrigation for almost 600,000ha which produced around four million tonnes of grain and oilseeds, worth around $1.5 billion.
The destruction of the dam has resulted in 94% of irrigation systems in Kherson being left without a water source.
“The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station will lead to the fact that the fields in the south of Ukraine next year can turn into deserts.
“Without the Kakhovka reservoir, not only farmers and water users will suffer, but also sources of drinking water supply for settlements,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We emphasise that all data are given only according to preliminary estimates. Final conclusions can be drawn only when the water level stabilises,” it added.
Dam
The United Nations (UN) said that sustained flooding caused by the destruction the dam will “disrupt farming activities, damage livestock and fisheries, and bring widespread longer-term consequences”.
Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths said this “is possibly the most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022”.
“The United Nations has no access to independent information on the circumstances that led to the destruction in the hydroelectric power-plant dam,” he added.
“This is a massive blow to a food production sector which is already significantly damaged,” Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Ukraine.
