On June 6, 2023, bombs hit and destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine and eliminated its hydropower generation, draining the massive reservoir behind the dam and flooding four cities and several dozen villages downstream (Gleick et al. 2023). The flooding left at least 50 people dead and hundreds missing—perhaps dead (Kullab and Novikov 2023). It caused contamination from pollutants picked up from sites along the river such as wastewater treatment plants and landfills, as well as contaminants that had been locked up in waters and soils behind the dam (Vyshnevskyi et al. 2023).
This article was written by Morgan Shimabuku and originally published by The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists.
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