President Zelensky: "Destruction of Kahovka Dam Causes Drinking Water Crisis for Hundreds of Thousands"

Dam Destruction Countermeasure Meeting "Requesting Support from International Organizations"
"Resident Evacuation and Drinking Water Supply Are Top Priorities"

In southern Ukraine, occupied by Russia, a dam explosion has caused flooding damage and a drinking water crisis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) is presiding over an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on the 6th (local time) after the Kakhovka Dam in Kherson Province was destroyed by an explosion of unknown cause. President Zelensky claimed that Russia detonated the dam structure from the inside and stated, "The whole world must respond to the attack on the Kakhovka Dam." Russia has pointed to Ukraine as the culprit, leading to a dispute over the truth. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The British daily The Guardian reported on the 7th (local time) that President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting on measures related to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine and disclosed the meeting contents via Telegram. It has been confirmed that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian residents are currently experiencing a drinking water shortage due to this incident.

President Zelensky stated, "The destruction of one of Ukraine's largest reservoirs was entirely deliberate," adding, "Hundreds of thousands of people do not have normal access to drinking water."

Emphasizing that emergency water supply along with resident evacuation is the top priority, President Zelensky criticized the Russian authorities occupying the left bank of the Dnipro River for failing to fulfill their evacuation duties and said, "We will request international organizations to support the residents."

The day before, the Kakhovka Dam in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine, was destroyed and collapsed. The multipurpose Kakhovka Dam had a storage capacity of 18㎦, holding 6.7 times the amount of water in South Korea's Chungju Lake. When the dam collapsed, an enormous amount of water flooded surrounding villages, resulting in seven residents missing and tens of thousands evacuated so far.

The Kakhovka Dam played a role in supplying hydroelectric power as well as drinking and agricultural water to southern Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and southeastern regions. With this key water source destroyed, water supply disruptions are inevitable in several areas.

Ukrainian authorities announced that due to the dam destruction, parts of the southern and southeastern regions including Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kherson will face difficulties from water supply interruptions.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Health urged residents to drink only safe bottled water and use safe water for cooking, warning that various chemicals may have been swept away from industrial complexes developed along the Dnipro River during the flooding.