Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held an emergency meeting on drinking water supply in the Dnipropetrovsk region following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. There are problems with the water supply in the towns of Kryvyi Rih, Marganets, Pokrov and Nikopol, the region’s military governor, Serhiy Lysak, said yesterday, according to a statement from the presidential office.
The Minister of Development and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov presented a project for the construction of a new reservoir, which must be at least partially on the territory of the existing one.
The Kachowka dam was destroyed on Tuesday night. As a result, large amounts of water flowed into the lower reaches of the Dnipro, which overflowed and flooded large areas of southern Ukraine. At the same time, the level in the real reservoir has dropped sharply. According to the authorities, the supply of drinking water in the adjacent regions is at risk.
According to the Presidential Office, the meeting also dealt with the construction of new water pipes in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which will replace the old ones in the Kakhovka reservoir. In an earlier meeting with environmental activists, Zelenskyy estimated the number of people potentially affected by Ukraine’s drinking water shortages at “hundreds of thousands”.