JUN 7, 2023
The fallout from the breach of a river dam along a frontline of Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to wreak havoc on lives, livelihoods and the environment. Tuesday’s dramatic rupture of the Kakhovka dam that upheld Ukraine’s largest reservoir released a 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 of water in areas where tens of...
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that hundreds of thousands of people were without normal access to drinking water.
The Russia-appointed mayor of the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said seven people were missing. The city sits near the dam.
In Ukrainian-controlled areas on the western side, Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson Regional Military administration, said water levels were expected to rise by another meter (about 3 feet) over the next 20 hours.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that at least 16,000 people have already lost their homes, and the U.N’s humanitarian aid coordinator said efforts are underway to provide water, money, and legal and emotional support to those affected.
Ukrainian authorities are rushing supplies of drinking water to areas affected by flooding from a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine. They also are weighing where they might resettle people who relied on the breached reservoir on the Dnieper River, which forms part of the front line of the...
apnews.com
The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and reservoir, essential for supplying drinking water and irrigation to a huge area of southern Ukraine, lies in a part of the Kherson region occupied by Moscow’s forces for the past year. It is also critical for water supplies to the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukraine holds the western bank of the Dnieper, while Russia controls the eastern side, which is lower and more vulnerable to flooding.
Scenes of flooded communities, rescues — and even people reportedly waiting for help on their roofs in some Russian-occupied areas — called to mind a natural disaster, rather than one caused by war.