Over 11,000 tonnes of fish worth US$270 million lost due to blowing up of Kakhovka HPP – Agricultural Policy Ministry

As a result of the Russians blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (Kakhovka HPP) and the draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir all fish have been destroyed – that is 11,400 tonnes.

Source: Mykola Solskyi, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in an interview with Forbes

Details: Solskyi explained that after the destruction of the water reservoir, the fish were washed away with the flow to the lower reaches of the Dnipro River in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts and ended up on floodplain land.

Quote:  "When the water had flown away, the area of land became 150,000 hectares. While the level of water was receding, the flow washed away the fish and destroyed all 85 fisheries, which were traditionally catching water bio-resources and which were located downstream: 49 in the Kakhovka Reservoir and 36 in the Dnipro-Pivdennyi Buh estuarine system," Solskyi added.

Details: The total damage from direct loss of fish and fish offspring equals 9.8 billion hryvnias [about US$270 million – ed.].

Solskyi noted that the rebuilding of the dam will take at least seven years: a few years for the rebuilding of the HPP itself and 2-3 years to fill the dam with water.

After that, the time for repairing the canals and irrigation systems built in the 1970-1990s will be needed as well.

Background:

On 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that the Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), with Kherson Oblast Military Administration confirming this information.

The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) has been completely destroyed due to the blowing up of the turbine hall from the inside, and the plant cannot be repaired.

The first estimate by the KSE Institute in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine shows that the Russian terrorist act at the Kakhovka HPP has caused at least US$2 billion of direct damage to Ukraine.

As a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP, the damage to the fish industry due to the deaths of adult fish exclusively may reach 95,000 tonnes or about 4 billion hryvnias [about US$108 million – ed.]. In total, according to the preliminary estimates, the damage from the deaths of all bio-resources will be up to 10.5 billion hryvnias [about US$284.4 million].

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