Fields in southern Ukraine could dry up due to the destruction of the Kahovka Reservoir

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

According to preliminary estimates, the department expects the flooding of approximately 10,000 hectares of agricultural land on the right bank of the Kherson region as a result of the HPS undermining. Several times more territory may be flooded on the left bank of the region, which is currently occupied.

The Ministry noted that detailed information will be available in the coming days after the analysis of satellite imagery and information on the extent of flooding. In addition, the man-made catastrophe will interrupt the water supply to the irrigation systems of 31 fields in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions.

In 2021, these systems provided irrigation for 584,000 hectares of land, from which Ukraine harvested approximately 4 million tons of grain and oil crops, valued at around $1.5 billion.

In 2023, only 13 irrigation systems are operational on the right bank of the Dnipro River. The undermining of the Kahovka HPS effectively cuts off the water supply to 94% of the irrigation systems in the Kherson region, 74% in Zaporizhia, and 30% in Dnipropetrovsk. There will also be negative consequences for the fish farming industry. Fish mortality is already being recorded, both among juveniles and adults. As the water level decreases after the spawning period, the eggs will dry out in the exposed areas.

Furthermore, the reservoir’s fauna carried downstream into the floodplains formed below the Kahovka HPS will also perish. As the flood wave subsides, these bioresources will be left on dry land.

Another problem will be the entry and mortality of freshwater fish and other bioresources in the saline waters of the Black Sea.

In turn, the Black Sea fauna may also suffer from the massive influx of freshwater. As a result of the destruction of the Kahovka HPS, losses for the fishing industry from the death of only adult fish may reach 95,000 tons or about 4 billion UAH.

According to preliminary calculations, the total losses from the death of all bioresources will amount to approximately 10.5 billion UAH, as stated by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

Photo: Open sources