Food production at risk from dam destruction

As well as causing a humanitarian disaster, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine could affect the country’s exports, with global implications for food security, Ukraine’s Agriculture ministry was quoted as saying in a report by The Guardian on 7 June.

Kiev has accused Russia of blowing up the dam and deliberately flooding the lower Dnipro River on 6 June to create a water barrier to counter a Ukrainian offensive attack.

Ukraine’s Agriculture ministry said the loss of water in the reservoir and the four canals it fed would mean an almost complete loss of irrigation systems in the Kherson region, three-quarters lost in Zaporizhzhia, and onethird lost in Dnipropetrovsk, The Guardian wrote.

“The destruction of the Kakhovskaya [dam] will mean that the fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts as early as next year,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Kherson region was one of Ukraine’s most fertile and productive areas, the BBC said on 8 June. The rich farmland either side of the Dnipro River produced a range of crops including sunflowers, soyabeans and wheat.

According to analysis on 7

June

Guardian loss of the reservoir would reduce water to irrigate the agricultural belt in the region.

“A drop of just 1m is enough for traps to run dry. That will have a knock-on effect on food production, and on [Ukrainian] exports of corn, sunflower oil, soyabeans and wheat.”