His work as a hunting and fishing guide effectively ended with the start of the war, but he stayed on his little island compound with his four dogs because it seemed safer than the alternative. Ihor Medunov is very much part of that ecosystem. “All this territory formed its own particular ecosystem, with the reservoir included,” said Kateryna Filiuta, an expert in protected habitats for the Ukraine Nature Conservation Group. Then the Dnieper became part of the front line after Russia's invasion last year. The Kakhovka Dam was the last in a system of six Soviet-era dams on the river, which flows from Belarus to the Black Sea. If water is life, then the draining of the Kakhovka reservoir creates an uncertain future for the region of southern Ukraine that was an arid plain until the damming of the Dnieper River 70 years ago. Fledgling water birds lost their nests and their food sources. Thousands of fish were left gasping on mud flats. Experts say the long-term consequences will be generational.įor every flooded home and farm, there are fields upon fields of newly planted grains, fruits and vegetables whose irrigation canals are drying up. The short-term dangers can be seen from outer space - tens of thousands of parcels of land flooded, and more to come. KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) - The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was a fast-moving disaster that is swiftly evolving into a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea.
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