Examples of dams & reservoirs under attack
The Kakhovka hydroelectric plant dam is one of many water infrastructures attacked. The dam holds about 18 million cubic metres of water from the Kakhovsky Reservoir, which was built as a source for irrigation and hydroelectric power. If the dam were destroyed, more than 80 settlements, including the city of Kherson, would be flooded and hundreds of thousands of people in large areas of southern Ukraine would be left without a water supply.
In mid-September, the destruction of the dam of the Karachuniv Reservoir in Kryvyi Rih caused hundreds of millions of hryvnias in damage. Although the state of water in the Ingulets River and its water catchment has stabilised, the preliminary amount of environmental damage is UAH 637 million. Currently, a spontaneous leakage of water from the Karachuniv Reservoir has reached 16.9 million cubic metres. Furthermore, a missile attack on Kryvyi Rih caused the water level in the Ingulets River to rise – 112 houses were flooded and about 5,000 families were left without a water supply.
Lastly, a gate of the Oskil Reservoir, one of the largest reservoirs in Ukraine, was destroyed last April. The reservoir was used for economic, drinking and technical purposes and was the water supply for Donbass. It also supplied irrigation and agricultural water, irrigated rivers and hydropower plants, and was used for fisheries. As a result of the occupying forces’ actions, the reservoir was seriously depleted, losing about 76 percent of its full volume. Water resources were damaged, the ecosystem of the reservoir was destroyed, and valuable fish species and other living water resources were destroyed.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources is using high-tech damage monitoring and assessment tools to record all the damage caused by the Russian invasion.
