Most of them will probably be uninhabitable when the water finally recedes. However, rescuers and volunteers were able to evacuate more than 4,000 people, according to official figures from the Ukrainian emergency services.Īs of June 14, more than 3,100 homes remained under water. Agricultural animals and domestic pets trapped in the flood zone without an escape route also died.
The sudden surge of water caught many people by surprise, and they were unable to escape. Clothes, furniture, household appliances-everything was ruined by water.ĭozens of people are currently missing, both on the Russian-occupied left bank and in Ukrainian-controlled towns and villages on the right bank. The leader of the local community ( starosta) told me that because people did not believe that the dam breach in Nova Kakhovka would lead to flooding far beyond the Dnipro river, many lost all their belongings. For example, in the village of Vasylivka in Mikolaiv oblast, which is located along the Ingulets River, a fifty-three-year-old man did not leave his house for a safer place because he thought nothing would happen he went to bed and drowned. Though residents of Ukraine were immediately informed of the dam’s collapse, many were unaware of the potential for massive flooding or did not think it would reach the scale it did. For example, in Kryvyi Rih, one of the biggest industrial cities in Ukraine, a large part of the city may be left without water for the next month. In the southern regions, local authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption because the dam had fed water to the reservoirs in these regions. Official figures indicate that the Kakhovka reservoir has lost more than 72 percent of its former store of water. The destruction of the hydroelectric power plant has also reduced the freshwater supply in the southern part of Kherson oblast and northern Crimea. The water level in the reservoir has dropped below the intake level, and water will soon stop flowing to occupied Crimea. The collapse of the dam reduced the volume of water available to the North Crimean Canal, the main source of freshwater to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. Some number of landmines have also been dislodged by the floodwaters and swept downstream, where their locations can no longer be tracked. A massive fish die-off ensued, and rescuers found unexploded shells from missiles that Russia had earlier launched toward Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro city. This is how, for instance, small villages along the Ingulets in Mykolaiv oblast became inundated.Īt the same time, in the wake of the massive water exodus, river levels south of Zaporizhzhia, above the dam, dropped, exposing the riverbed. Later, the water flowed into small rivers to the West of Dnipro and began to flood remote settlements far from the Kakhovka reservoir. On Wednesday, June 7, the floodwaters reached Kherson city, forcing residents to abandon their homes. When the previously mined dam in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson oblast, was breached on Tuesday, June 6, the waters released from the huge Kakhovka reservoir rushed downstream, flooding Oleshky, Kardashinka, Gola Prystan, and other villages along the left bank of the Dnipro river. What are the consequences of one of the worst human-caused disasters of our time for the region's residents and the environment? The June 6 destruction of the Kakhovka dam by the Russian occupiers was a catastrophe not only for Ukraine but for the entire Eurasian region. Careers, Fellowships, and Internships Open/Close.Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition.Science and Technology Innovation Program.Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative.The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative.
Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.North Korea International Documentation Project.Environmental Change and Security Program.Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.
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