Fields in Ukraine may turn into deserts because of the disaster at the hydroelectric power plant

The destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydropower plant has caused considerable damage to the Ukrainian agriculture, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of the country has announced, World of NAN reports.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, according to preliminary estimates, predicts flooding of about 10 thousand hectares of agricultural land on the right bank of the Kherson region as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydropower plant. And also several times more on the left bank of the region. According to the department, the man-made disaster will stop water supply to 31 irrigation systems of fields in Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

In 2021, these systems provided irrigation for 584 thousand hectares, from which the country harvested about 4 million tons of grain and oilseeds worth about 1.5 billion dollars.

"In 2023, there are only 13 irrigation systems operating on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The terrorist attack on the Kakhovskaya HPP actually left 94% of the irrigation systems in the Kherson region, 74% in the Zaporozhye region and 30% in the Dnepropetrovsk region without a water source. The destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP will lead to the fact that the fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts next year. Without Kakhovska reservoir, not only farmers and water users, but also sources of drinking water supply of settlements will suffer", - the ministry says.

Negative consequences of destruction of Kakhovskaya HPP will also affect fishery, specialists note.

"The death of fish, both juveniles and adults, has already been recorded. The spawning period has just ended and as a result of a drop in the water level the eggs will dry up in the shallowed areas. In addition, the fauna of the reservoir, brought with the flow of water into the floodplains that were formed below the dam of Kakhovskaya HPP, will also die. Since in the future, when the wave of the "flood" decreases, these bioresources will be on dry land", - comments Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

"As a result of the destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP losses for the fishery from the death of adults alone could reach 95 thousand tons or about 4 billion UAH. In total, according to preliminary calculations, the damage from the death of all bioresources will amount to 10.5 billion UAH. Negative consequences of the devastation of aquatic bioresources will be traced for several years in a row, even with the filling of the bottom of Kakhovka reservoir in the near future. Because the restoration of the quantitative and qualitative composition of fish populations, the restoration of bottom cenosis of the food base takes a long time," - stressed in the department. They note that all data are given only for preliminary evaluations. Final conclusions can be made only when the water level stabilizes.

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