The Nova Kakhovka dam has been constructed on Ukraine's Dnipro River.
Video on Tuesday showed a breach in Nova Kakhovka dam, a massive Soviet-era structure, in the Russian controlled part of southern Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the intentional attack.
Here are 5 points on the strategically important dam:
- The Nova Kakhovka dam has been constructed on Ukraine's Dnipro River and is situated 30km east of the city of Kherson, according to The Guardian.
- The dam is 30 metres tall and 3.2 kilometres long. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, the outlet further said. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest, gets its cooling water from the dam's reservoir.
- The reservoir holds about the same volume of water as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The wall of water from it could flood settlements below it, including Kherson.
- The reservoir also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia claims to have annexed in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control. If the dam is destroyed, the canal system that supplies water to much of Crimea will be wrecked.
- The Nova Kakhovka dam was captured by Russia at the start of Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. When Ukraine recaptured Kherson, images showing parts of the dame damaged were widely circulated on social media. According to Reuters, 22,000 people live across 14 settlements are at the risk of flooding.
