KAKHOVKA DAM COLLAPSE ENDANGERS THOUSANDS AS FEARS GROW FOR MISSING PEOPLE

Wed 07 June 2023:

About 42,000 people are at risk from flooding on both sides of the Dnipro River after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials have said, with floodwaters expected to peak on Wednesday.

The prediction came after UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the security council on Tuesday night that the dam breach “will have grave and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine on both sides of the front line through the loss of homes, food, safe water and livelihoods”.

Moscow accused of blowing up #NOVAKAKHOVKA dam in Kherson region.

Disaster happened on the second day of #Ukrainian offensive, operations likely to mark the early stages of a mass counteroffensive. It could affect any Ukrainian plans for an amphibious assault across the river. pic.twitter.com/Hvpl2ylKHI

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) June 6, 2023

“The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully realised in the coming days,” he said.

Some Russian minefields in parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region controlled by Moscow were flooded after the dam was breached, the region’s Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said, the TASS news agency has reported.

The state-run TASS news agency reported that Russian-installed authorities imposed a state of emergency in the annexed part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, posted a video which shows stranded fish in the Dnipro flood waters.#NovaKakhovka pic.twitter.com/BBOVQuojtj

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) June 7, 2023

At least 500,000 hectares of land could become ‘deserts’: Ukraine

Ukraine’s agriculture ministry says the Kakhovka dam flooding will affect tens of thousands of hectares of land in southern Ukraine and could leave at least 500,000 hectares into “deserts”.

“The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station will lead to the fact that fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts next year,” the agriculture ministry said.

In a late statement on Tuesday night, the disaster would cut off the water supply to 31 irrigation systems in the Ukrainian regions of Dnipro, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Kyiv has estimated that about 42,000 people are at risk from flooding, which it expects to peak on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy said the dam’s collapse had left hundreds of thousands of people without normal access to drinking water.

Video showing the flooding and devastation in Russian-occupied Oleshky, Kherson oblast, a day after the Kakhovka Dam under Russian forces’ control was collepsed. pic.twitter.com/8oR9Q9dWkS

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) June 7, 2023

Hundreds of thousands with no drinking water after dam collapse: Zelenskyy

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine had left hundreds of thousands of people without normal access to drinking water.

📷Maxar Technologies has published new satellite images of #Kherson Region, which show the extent of the destruction caused by blowing up of the #Kakhovka, The Guardian reported. Images cover more than 2,500 square kilometres between #NovaKakhovka & the #Dnipro Bay of Kherson pic.twitter.com/63oioUOIlq

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) June 7, 2023

“The destruction of one of the largest water reservoirs in Ukraine is absolutely deliberate … Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without normal access to drinking water,” the Ukrainian president said on social media.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent