Blowing up of Kakhovka power plant: national park suffers US$1.2 billion worth of damage

The blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant by the Russians has caused an estimated US$1.2 billion worth of damage to the Nyzhnodniprovskyi (Lower Dnipro) National Park.

Source: Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine's Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources

As the water level rose by 3.5 metres over an area of about 80,000 hectares, almost all the islands on the territory of the National Park have ended up underwater.

"The high waters have affected land in the Emerald Network [an area of special conservation interest] and the Ramsar lands. The entire species composition of the wildlife of the National Nature Park has been affected by the flooding. Some species could disappear," the minister says.

Ruslan Strilets noted that the intensity of the flooding is decreasing, but water is still arriving. There are also landslides, and the products of rock destruction are being carried away by the water.

The damage to the park has impacted 1,016 plant species and 1,140 animal species.

"Among the animals that may die are wild boar, fallow deer, red deer, roe deer, European hare, pheasant, beaver and muskrat. There may be a significant deterioration in water quality," says the minister.

Other national parks in the region have also been affected, including the Great Meadow, Oleshky Sands, Sviatoslav's White Coast and the Kamianska Sich.

Note: Over 850 kg of aquatic organisms, particularly fish, have died as a result of the destruction of the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and the draining of the reservoir.

Environmentalists have noted that the blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is having the most devastating impact on Ukraine's ecosystem, as it will have negative consequences for wildlife in an area of more than 5,000 sq. km.

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