The wrecking of the Kakhovka dam was a whirlwind of a disaster,
morphing into an ongoing environmental nightmare,
messing with our drinking water, food supplies
and even the ecosystem stretching all the way down to the Black Sea.
This ain’t just a short lived crisis, no,
it's going to haunt us for generations to come.
Even from space,
you can see the immediate fallout from this mess.
Thousands of hectares of land flooded and more to come.
But that's just the beginning.
The real trouble lies ahead.
Think about it.
Every single flooded house you see is matched by vast
fields filled with newly planted grains, fruits and veggies.
Now drying up.
And let's not forget the fish left gasping for air
on muddy shores or the waterbirds losing their nests.
It's a complete disaster with trees and plants getting drowned out left and right.
Water is life and the level of its ability decides on how a living ecosystem
looks like the draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir creates an uncertain future
for southern Ukraine, a region that was once an arid plain
until the damming of the Dnieper river 70 years ago.
The collapse of this dam has caused an irreversible havoc
affecting a complex web of life. But in the midst of all this chaos, it's
also sparked an important conversation to hold about what was there before
and what or how this region shall or will look like in the future.
And we shall make no mistakes.
the extent of the long term damage
depends on the movement of the front lines An outcome in an unpredictable war.
But at some point we have to address these questions
Cam the dam and reservoir to be restored?
Or should the region be allowed to become an arid plain once again?
Just like before the dam and reservoir. In order to understand
this complex matter, we have to look at the very beginning,
the time before to dam, and the reasons why it was built.
A century ago instead of a reservoir, there were large
flood plains surrounded by the arid plains of southern Ukraine.
The historical name for this region was “Velykyi Luh” or large plane in English.
In World War 2, the German army invaded and occupied Soviet
Ukraine between 1941 and 1944.
Ironically enough, their military maps from that time are a detailed
look into what the area looked like before the construction of the dam.
we can clearly see large floodplains in the area south of Zaporizhzhia.
This whole area went under water with the construction of the dam.
This was initiated by the Soviets shortly after the war and is one of six
that sits along that Dnieper River, which stretches
from the very north of the country, down south into the Black Sea,
the dam 30 meters tall and 3.2 kilometers long,
held back a huge reservoir, which locals called the Kakhovka Sea.
In fact, it became Europe's second largest reservoir, an immense body of water.
It held back approximately 18 cubic kilometers of water,
about the same as the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Its main purpose was power generation and irrigation
of the surrounding land and a quite relevant detail.
It also supplies water to Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia in 2014
and cooling water to the
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant which is also under Russian control.
The large plains got lost and a huge lake was born with it,
a vast area, famously fertile farmland.
Fast forward 70 years.
Soon after the invasion of Russian troops in 2022, the dam became
part of the front line. War was well underway for a while,
with battle movements and high tensions in the region.
Yet the reservoir kept watering the fields of Ukraine's fertile farmlands
and the wilderness downstream, including two national parks,
was mostly untouched by military activities.
However, everything changed in 2023.
Only a day after the apparent beginning of Ukraine's long anticipated
counter offensive, a massive explosion was detected at the dam
which then collapsed, sending torrents of water cascading through the breach.
In just a matter of days, the water of the reservoir was sucked dry.
while a vast area all the way down to the Black Sea was flooded
In the aftermath of the dams collapse, water levels downstream continued to rise,
inundating towns, cities and farmlands.
Over 1000 people were forced to flee their homes seeking safety from the flooding.
but with all the human tragedy.
One might overlook the fact that not only people were affected
The environmental consequences can basically be divided into two parts.
everything affected due to the emptied out reservoir above the dam on the one hand
and all the consequences downstream on the other.
As an immediate effect,
water masses killed around 300 animals at the Nova Kakhovka Zoo,
the breach resulted in the flooding of a vast area of wilderness,
causing immediate habitat loss and displacement of wildlife.
80% of the territory of the Nizhnyodniprovskyi National Nature Park,
a nature reserve along the Dnieper River protected by UNESCO's, was flooded.
The National Park was famous among domestic and European biologists
for its rare floodplain forests, swamps and sandy steppes.
Local wildlife, including many protected migrating bird species,
will most likely have severely increased difficulties to find their food supplies
once the water has retreated.
Matter of fact, there are three other major nature reserves downstream.
the Oleshky Sands National Nature Park,
the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve and the Biloberezhia Sviatoslava NP.
However, it's super difficult to know the scale of impact
on these delicate and very important ecosystems just yet.
The Ukrainian Nature Protection Group or UNCG,
speaks of 48 protected areas currently at risk.
These include many parks and natural landmarks that were partially or completely flooded.
Additionally, the release of water and potential contamination
from industrial chemicals and oil, leaked from the hydropower plant posed
a severe threat to the ecosystems and water supplies in the region.
150 tons of motor oil, with the risk of a further
leak of more than 300 tons of motor oil, could potentially reach the Black Sea.
And a not so visible environmental threat is the water salinity level.
With the masses of freshwater from the reservoir,
the Black Sea has now begun to desalinate the water salinity level
on three coasts near Odessa has decreased almost threefold.
Although the extent is not yet clear, it's pretty obvious that this can have
severe consequences in local ecosystems and marine life.
And then there's everything above the dam:
There, the environmental consequences are equally severe, yet
the other way around and not immediately obvious.
In the aftermath of the dam's collapse, the giant reservoir emptied out with
an unprecedented pace. In its surroundings to Great Meadow Nature Park
and the Kamianska Sich National Parks are slowly becoming desert like areas.
The Great Meadow National Park, or Velykyi Luh in Ukrainian covers
the last historic step terrain in southern Ukraine.
It lies on the south bank of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the meadows
and reed beds on the shore
support one of the largest transmigration spots for birds in Eastern Europe.
The draining of the reservoir may also lead to the complete extinction of the
Great and Little Kuchuhury Archipelago , a unique nature conservation area
consisting of a formation of small islands the middle of the Dnieper Reservoir.
Yet the long term environmental impacts of this desertification
may include alterations
to local climatic conditions due to the loss of a large body of water,
the dry lakebed could release dust and contaminant particles into the air,
leading to changes in local climate and potential dust pollution in the air.
it's still very early to know with 100% certainty what effects this will have.
But several textbook examples like the disappearing Great Salt Lake
or Owens Lake or the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan let the possible predictions
look pretty grim.
By the way, if you want to dive deeper and understand
these developments much better, we've covered these lakes and other videos.
You'll find the links below.
So what does this mean for local wildlife?
In total, the area of territory that could be flooded may exceed 120,000 hectares.
which means habitat loss to many local subspecies.
The UNCG has begun to list species threatened or doomed by the disaster.
This includes many types of mammals in the flooded areas below the dam
and above the dam,
all the shallow areas of the reservoir have already dried up.
This means that almost all spawning grounds of
at least 43 species of fish have already been destroyed.
Birds that nest in the flooded areas have lost their offspring to the resulting
drying out in the great meadows and the archipelago.
54 species of fish and 156
species of birds living on the islands could be lost.
Also up to 30,000 waterfowl are usually observed on the territory during autumn migration.
We will have to wait and see until then.
So you might now argue that those nature reserves and national parks and a vast
portion of what the ecosystems look like today are completely manmade,
that the dam at the reservoir weren’t there a century ago.
And it's true.
But they were there the last 70 years.
Wildlife and nature
have adapted to the dam and and as we can see such a radical disruption
comes along with a lot of destruction and uncertainty for the future.
even though some voices are now demanding to leave the Dnieper as it is
without the dam, this is a very risky approach and not entirely thought through.
Desertification upstream and the water flow
downstream and the salinity of the Black Sea,
apart from the water supply for local populations and agriculture,
we cannot say with absolute certainty
what this will look like without the dam.
Experts warn that the area is of greater risk of both, droughts and flooding
because the dam helped regulate extreme highs and lows in water levels
and that rebuilding, it seems to be the only long term solution
to restore water security for the area.
So even if you plead for rewilding, the destruction of a dam
as a result of war is for sure not the way to go.
It's pretty clear, though, that either way it's going to take time.
through restoration projects, wildlife conservation
initiatives and sustainable land management practices.
The affected ecosystems can gradually recover.
Collaboration between scientists, conservationists and local communities
will be vital in ensuring the long term sustainability of the region.
But this, as I mentioned before, will take time.
A lot of it.
And first of all, peace.
So I hope this could give you a much better insight
into the consequences of the disappearing reservoir in Ukraine.
And as I mentioned before,
we covered so many disappearing lakes and bodies of water across the world.
Have a look into our “Earth Explained” series.
You'll find so many other exciting stories in there.
See you next time! Bye!