Complete destruction of the fauna and flora of a very large area on both sides of the Dnieper River, in a length of about 400 kilometers from Zaporizhia to almost Odessa, is one of the enormous environmental impacts that the destruction of the dam will bring Nova Kahovka in Ukraine, as pointed out by professor of Dynamic Tectonics Applied Geology & Natural Disaster Management and president of the OASP, Efthymis Lekkas.

Mr. Lekkas emphasizes that the blowing up of the Nova Kahovka dam in Kherson will catalyze the wider area on the northern coast of the Black Sea and is an environmentally destructive action.

In particular, the Nova Kahovka dam, almost 4 kilometers long, is divided into two sections: the first is a gravity dam with an impervious core and coarse-grained materials on either side that provide support for the clay core, and a second with reinforced concrete, in the top part of which is constructed spillways. The blasting took place in this very section, due to its great vulnerability.

According to Mr. Lekka, the huge environmental impacts can be summarized as follows:

  • * Complete destruction of the fauna and flora of a very large area on both sides of the Dnieper river in a length of about four hundred kilometers from Zaporizhzhya to almost Odessa and in a width of about 50 kilometers.
  • * Transport of large quantities of transported sediments, possibly contaminated with high percentages of heavy metals, which will also spread to areas, which were already heavily burdened.
  • * Violent change in the regime of underground water and underground aquifers and in particular their qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
  • * Permanent coverage of rural and urban areas by a layer of mud up to 2 meters thick, with adverse effects on primary production, especially food, for a long period of time, and indeed in a sensitive area due to the war.
  • * Permanent changes in the microclimate of the areas along the Dnieper River, with an effect on wider areas and strengthening of the catastrophic phenomena that make up the climate crisis.

“However, the environmental impact is only one of the categories of impact brought about by this disaster, as the social consequences are also great, since more than 20,000 people are forced to move immediately to safer areas”, concludes Mr. Lekkas.