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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/devastation-from-kakhovka-dam-collapse-could-take-decades-to-heal>
"The people living along Ukraine’s lower Dnipro River must contend with the
immediate consequences of the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and flee for
safety with whatever they can salvage, but the wider impact could make itself
felt for generations.
Downstream, the flood waters will subside somewhat as the surge reaches the
Black Sea, but many of the villages and towns along the course of the Dnipro
may not be habitable again unless and until a new dam is built. Thousands of
homes and livelihoods have been swept away, along with countless domesticated
and wild animals.
The ecological trauma of such an inundation of water and silt has changed the
landscape in an instant, wiping away islands and wetlands. It could take years
if not decades for the fauna and flora to bounce back. Ukraine’s president,
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called it the “largest man-made environmental disaster in
Europe in decades”. It is the country’s misfortune to have also been the site
of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, arguably the last calamity on such a scale.
With a reservoir of 18bn cubic metres, Nova Kakhovka was one the dams with the
largest capacity in the world, according to Mohammad Heidarzadeh, a senior
lecturer in the architecture and civil engineering department at the UK’s
University of Bath. It was 90 times bigger than the largest dam reservoir in
Britain, the Kielder dam in Northumberland.
“It is obvious that the failure of this dam will definitely have extensive
long-term ecological and environmental negative consequences not only for
Ukraine but for neighbouring countries and regions,” Heidarzadeh said.
Along with all the debris carried along by the rushing waters are tens of
thousands of mines. The flood waters are rolling through a frontline in the
war. The banks of the Dnipro have been frontlines since at least November, when
Ukrainian forces drove the Russians across the river to the southern bank. Both
sides laid mines along the waterfront and they have now been washed away and
will be distributed randomly in towns, villages and farmland downstream. A
flood means civilians can be blown up many kilometres from a conflict zone,
many years after the war."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
