People are evacuated from flooded areas in Kherson, Ukraine, after the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam collapsed. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
On June 20, Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said the Kakhovka dam collapse caused about 1.2 billion euros (more than 1.3 billion USD) in damage, and warned that flooding could cause many mines planted in the area to fall onto the coasts of other European countries.
Speaking online at a meeting of European Union (EU) Environment Ministers, Minister Strilets stated that experts are assessing the damage and that the dam collapse is the biggest environmental disaster since the conflict broke out in Ukraine in February 2022.
“There are things that we can never restore,” Minister Strilets stressed. “These are ecosystems that have been washed into the Black Sea, in which 20,000 animal species may have died, including endemic species found only in southern Ukraine.”
Furthermore, the dam collapse left about 1 million people without clean water after the volume of the Kakhovka reservoir was reduced by three-quarters.
EU environmental policy director Virginijus Sinkevicius said countries in the bloc were coordinating the emergency provision of boats, shelters, water barriers, medical equipment and water purifiers to affected areas.
The Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River in Kherson collapsed on June 6. The dam is 30m high and 3.2km long, and was built in 1956. With a reservoir capacity of up to 18km3, it is an important water supply for the Crimean peninsula in the south and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, in the north.
Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the dam collapse. The IAEA warned that the dam collapse could lead to more serious consequences related to safety and security issues at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
So far, the dam collapse has killed more than 50 people and destroyed many homes and farmland.
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