Ukrainian farmers lost up to 1.5 mln hectares of land because of Kakhovka dam destruction
According to Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyi estimates, farmers will not be able to fully use 1-1.5 million hectares of agricultural land due to the destruction of the Kakhovkay Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP).
The minister said this on the air of the national telethon, the press service of the ministry reports.
"The consequences of stopping irrigation are much greater. Not half a million hectares, but a million and a half hectares will not be fully used," said Solskyi. "It will take 3-5-7 years to restore irrigation. This should become a priority because this is not only a matter of agribusiness and ecology but also social. Farmers maintain a social life in the surrounding villages, pay taxes, pay landlords, mostly elderly people, for shares."
He noted that the Kakhovky Canal alone supplied water to more than half a million hectares of land. The problem of irrigation will become the biggest in agriculture.
The minister also said that the Kakhovka reservoir was the source for two irrigation and water supply systems — the Kakhovka system and the North Crimean Canal. These systems were built with water levels in mind to use minimal electricity for the pumps.
The water level has fallen, so water does not flow to the irrigation systems. To raise it, it is necessary to restore the dam. It will be a problem for many years, the minister added.
Background
As Rubryka reported, on the night of June 6, Russian invaders blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, located a few kilometers from the temporarily occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine's southern Kherson region.
We will remind you that three people have already died due to flooding in the temporarily occupied Oleshky on the left bank of the Kherson region,
One person also died in the Mykolaiv region due to flooding after the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station explosion.
The Rubryka correspondent also reported that the Russians were shooting at people trying to evacuate in the flooded left-bank Kherson region.
Meanwhile, the water level exceeded the historical maximum in Mykolaiv and the region. Due to the disaster, the Kinburn Spit was cut off from the mainland.
