“A catastrophe on a planetary scale” – this is how experts assess the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in Ukraine. In the Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine, about a thousand hectares of land were under irrigation.
This entire system is destroyed, the catastrophe will affect water resources and soils and, most likely, will affect the food security of the whole world.
On the night of June 6, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was destroyed, located in the city of Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson region, at the epicenter of the fighting. About 80 settlements were flooded, some of them on the territory controlled by Russian forces, others under the control of Ukrainian forces. The energy company Ukrhydroenergo said that the hydroelectric power station was completely destroyed and cannot be restored. Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of committing a terrorist attack, experts are also considering the version of a man-made disaster.
The Ukrainian edition Novosti Donbassa received the following answers to this question from experts from the Ecodia Center for Environmental Initiatives.
Many regions received water from the Kakhovka reservoir. Now the water has demolished everything in its path, it is absolutely polluted. This includes chemical and bacteriological contamination.
The period of flooding can not even be considered in terms of access to water. But even after the water comes down – the question is what kind of water will it be, especially in wells, and the consequences here will be primarily for groundwater.
Pollution is massive – nitrates, phosphates, oil products. Due to the fact that a large number of animals were washed away and died, there is a risk of bacteriological contamination of the water.
Mass death of fish and birds
Lands that have not been flooded for hundreds of years have suffered; entire ecosystems, the extent of the damage caused has yet to be assessed after the water subsides. It is already clear that there has been a mass death of fish and aquatic invertebrates both in the reservoir due to rapid drying, and downstream due to severe water pollution.
Most likely we should expect a mass death of birds that feed on this fish. The huge mass of water also destroyed their nesting sites along with their offspring. And we are talking about one of the richest bird colony places in all of Ukraine.
Many other small mammals, reptiles and insects will also die. Lost populations can take years to recover.
Botulism
The bodies of many dead animals will remain in the water for a long time. And then they will be taken out to the Black Sea or thrown onto land. Decomposition creates a bacteriological threat.
The State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine has already warned about the risks of dysentery and cholera in flooded areas. People are being warned not to catch or eat fish for the next few months, as this is fraught with botulism.
Agricultural land became unusable due to spilled oil products
Hundreds of liters of oil and gasoline spilled into the water. The risk, in particular, is that a kind of film is formed on the surface of the water, which prevents the access of oxygen. All biomass in the water will rot.
Subsequently, when the water comes down, the film may remain on the surface of the soil. And this will greatly affect whether, in principle, any vegetation can grow there.
For agriculture, such lands, most likely, will not be suitable.
The Dnieper flows into the Black Sea. There are already a lot of creepy videos on social networks, where things, buildings and furniture lie on the beaches in the Odessa region. The impact will be significant.
“I saw an assessment that the volume of everything that water will carry away on its way is approximately equal to the volume of waste that Ukraine generates in two years. Huge volumes will flow into the Black Sea, where they accumulate. How to get them is the big question. There is also a risk of transferring mines,” Anna Danilyak of Ecodia NGO says.
In terms of the volume of the affected area, the disaster is comparable to Chernobyl. The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster and radioactive contamination made the area uninhabitable for a century. It’s probably decades now.
But with Chernobyl, this disaster can be compared in terms of territorial scale. It is still difficult to say which area will suffer as a result of this disaster and will be directly flooded.
“Initially, the construction of this hydroelectric power station was a tragedy and there is no need to restore it”
“From the point of view of harming the environment, the very construction of this entire cascade and the overregulation of the Dnieper was a great tragedy,” Anna Danilyak says. “It is better to think not about rebuilding hydroelectric power plants, but to look for green alternatives.”
In the energy sector, it is worth looking towards solar and wind power plants, and in agriculture, to look into drought-resistant crops.
