Following Russia's larger invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, one of the goals was to restore Crimea's water supply, and Russia did so that summer by diverting water out of the reservoir. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Ukraine diverted water from the canal, leaving the peninsula parched. The reservoir was also a critical source of water for the Crimean Peninsula, which is supplied via a 403-kilometer (250 mile) canal. "It's very important locally," Kuns says. A network of canals leading from the reservoir irrigates roughly 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of farmland that is used to grow sunflowers, grain and vegetables. The reservoir is essential to supplying water to otherwise arid farmland in the southern part of the country, according to Brian Kuns, a geographer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who has studied farming in southern Ukraine. The blue gantry cranes, which control locks along the dam, can be seen in the background. A lengthy canal leading from the reservoir also supplies Russian-occupied Crimea.Ī Russian soldier patrols an area at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station on May 20, 2022, in a photograph taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Since the 1950s, it has been used to provide drinking and irrigation water to parts of Ukraine's southern districts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. It is the final body of water in a network of reservoirs along Ukraine's Dnipro River. The Kakhovka Reservoir is a massive, man-made lake roughly the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. "Even though the decreased water level does not pose an immediate threat to nuclear safety and security, it may become a source of concern if it is allowed to continue," the IAEA's director General Rafael M.
Late last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was aware of the potential risk posed by dropping water levels at the reservoir. At stake is drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents, irrigation for nearly half-a-million acres of farmland, and the cooling system at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
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