On June 6, 2023, Russian military forces blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam in the Kherson region. Three years after this disaster, it becomes clear: it’s not just about destroyed infrastructure, flooded settlements, and billions of dollars in damage. A new natural reality is already forming at the site of the former Kakhovka Reservoir, and for people in southern Ukraine, the main threat is not the water that has gone, but the water that is now absent.
According to official data, after the dam explosion, 80 settlements were flooded, 16,000 people were left homeless, and the preliminary damage from the destruction was estimated at 14 billion dollars. The full scale of the losses can only be calculated after the de-occupation of southern Ukraine.
What is happening at the site of the Kakhovka Reservoir
Ecologist Maksim Soroka, scientific director of the Ukrainian Laboratory of Public Research “Dovkola”, told UNIAN (June 5, 2026) that the former water area of the Kakhovka Reservoir is gradually returning to its natural ecological regime. But this does not mean that the former Great Meadow is returning there.
On the drained territories, spring floods occur, the first forest is actively developing, and biodiversity is growing. According to the expert, nature quickly occupies the empty space: the territory is inhabited by both local plant species and invasive vegetation.
Why the Great Meadow will not return in its former form
Soroka states directly: the ecosystem that existed before the construction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is lost forever. The destruction of the dam itself does not automatically trigger the restoration of the historical Great Meadow. Instead, a new, still not fully understood natural system is emerging.
This is an important point for the Israeli audience. In Israel, they understand well the value of water, irrigation, drought, and mistakes in managing natural resources. Therefore, the story of Kakhovka is not only a Ukrainian tragedy but also a big lesson for countries where security, agriculture, and water are directly linked.
Currently, a rapid growth of willow-poplar forests is being recorded on the former bottom of the reservoir. The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine conducted expeditions over three years and confirmed the development of biodiversity; red-listed plants were discovered, and in the branches of the Dnipro above and below Enerhodar, representatives of sturgeon fish species were identified for the first time since the dam’s construction.
However, positive changes in nature do not negate the main issue: the socio-economic catastrophe continues.
The water is gone, and with it, the region’s stability
The absence of the Kakhovka Reservoir as a huge reservoir of fresh water has become a factor that hinders the recovery of southern Ukraine. Cities can now partially live without “Kakhovka”, but only under one strict condition: if the evacuated residents do not return, and the former enterprises and agriculture do not resume operations on the previous scale.
Two powerful water pipelines were built with international donor funds. They fully cover the domestic needs of cities, but for small settlements, they provide only about 25% of the needs. Agriculture, irrigation, and industry are left without a reliable source of fresh water.
Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Marhanets: water is available, but the problem is not solved
The situation is especially difficult in Kryvyi Rih and the Kryvyi Rih region. Before the Kakhovka disaster, part of the region received water from the Kakhovka Reservoir. Now about 60% of Kryvyi Rih residents are forced to use water with mineralization reaching 1200–1300 mg/l, whereas previously the indicator was about 500–600 mg/l.
The new pipelines have reduced the salinity of the water, but have not solved the strategic problem. Water is supplied to Nikopol and Marhanets, but it is only enough for domestic needs. The situation is exacerbated by constant Russian shelling: damaged networks lose a significant portion of the water, which simply goes into the ground.
In the middle of this story, it is especially clear why NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency pays attention to the Ukrainian environmental agenda. For Israel, where water has long been a matter of national security, the Ukrainian south after Kakhovka looks not like a distant geography, but a warning of how an infrastructural blow can change the lives of entire regions for decades.
Farmers and villages found themselves in the most vulnerable zone
In the spring, Soroka’s laboratory studied the Zelenodolsk, Pokrovske, and Apostolove communities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The main conclusion is harsh: the new pipelines practically do not reach there, and people in rural areas are left without normal water.
These territories lived off greenhouses, small farming, horticulture, and growing greens. According to estimates, local farms provided about one-fifth of all greens to the markets of Ukraine. Now farmers are forced to use brackish groundwater for irrigation and understand that they are gradually poisoning their own soils.
According to the ecologist, in 10–15 years, the fertility of some agricultural lands may decrease by half. This is not a temporary inconvenience, but a long-term blow to the region: soils form over millennia, but they can be destroyed much faster.
Can the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant be restored
The question of restoring the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant remains the most controversial. On one hand, the construction of the Soviet reservoir was a heavy intervention in nature and people’s destinies: settlements were flooded, residents were evicted, historical memory was erased. On the other hand, it was the reserve of fresh water that allowed the region to develop, feed people, and support industry.
Soroka believes that without the reservoir, the region cannot exist on the previous scale. If the territories are returned to their primary natural state, an honest answer must be given to the question: where to put the majority of the population that previously lived off this infrastructure?
Why restoration is becoming increasingly difficult
Technically, restoring the reservoir is already extremely difficult. According to calculations, to provide the region with water, a guaranteed useful volume of about 6 cubic kilometers is needed, and in the peak period — up to 9 cubic kilometers. Before the disaster, the total volume of the Kakhovka Reservoir was 16–18 cubic kilometers.
But now a huge willow-poplar forest is growing at the site of the former reservoir. If such territories are flooded again, the decaying plant mass can create a long-term hydrochemical problem and turn the future reservoir not into a source of fresh water, but into a dangerous swamp.
There is another factor — mines. The territory of the former reservoir is mined, and specialists cannot yet name a clear technology or the cost of full technical and humanitarian demining. As long as the war continues, any discussions about restoring the Kakhovka Reservoir remain more theoretical.
What this means for Ukraine and Israel
The Kakhovka disaster shows that war destroys not only homes, bridges, and power plants. It changes water, soils, markets, migration, agriculture, and the future of entire communities.
For Ukraine, it is a matter of survival for the south after Russian aggression. For Israel, it is another example of how vulnerable civilian infrastructure is in a region where the enemy deliberately targets water, energy, and living conditions.
The new ecosystem at the site of the Kakhovka Reservoir may become unique for Ukraine and the world. But alongside this natural process remains the human cost: villages without water, farmers without proper irrigation, cities with deteriorated water quality, and people who want to return home but do not know if their land can be livable again.