According to satellite images, four canal networks in Ukraine have separated from the reservoir, UN estimates, the availability of drinking water may be threatened for over 700,000 people, the majority of whom reside in Russian-occupied territory.
Experts claim that the water loss from the canals would seriously hinder the area’s ability to produce food.
Ukraine Threat to Drinking Water and Food Production
Upstream (to the northeast) of the dam, water levels in the reservoir and the canals it feeds dramatically dropped. According to current satellite images, levels have continued to drop.
The canals provided irrigation for a huge area of farmland in addition to serving as a supply of drinking water for a sizable chunk of southern Ukraine.
the dam provided a flood barrier downstream for areas southwest of it.
BBC Verify was keeping an eye on the four canal exits using satellite pictures, and by June 15th, all of them had ceased functioning as the reservoir’s water level continued to drop.
Further images demonstrate the reservoir’s dramatic drying out. The reservoir formerly held 18 cubic kilometers of water.
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Drying Reservoir Exposes Farmland Vulnerability
As the shallower sections of the reservoir were initially exposed, the shape of the Dnipro River prior to the completion of the dam in 1956 was partially revealed.
Photos show that the canals still have water in them even further away from the reservoir. It is unclear when they will run out of fuel.
On both banks of the Dnipro River, the canals had the capacity to service around 5,840 sq km (584,000 hectares) of cropland before the war, with more than half of the area reliant on irrigation systems.
Although many communities downstream of the reservoir were originally flooded by Hurricane Harvey, Inbal Becker-Reshef, program director at NASA Harvest, a project that researches global food security, asserts that After the dam collapsed, the loss of water supply brought on by huge canal networks drying up will provide a long-term challenge to food production.
Certain crops may survive solely on rain, but a dry canal system can make farmland vulnerable to drought, which affects the availability of drinking water.
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