SIMFEROPOL, May 29. /TASS/. Environmental recovery after the destruction of the Kakhovka power plant in the Kherson Region will take two or three generations, said Vladimir Maleyev, dean of the natural sciences department at the Kherson State Pedagogical University.
"Lengthy hydrogeological studies after the construction of the HPP said this [environmental condition] was to have reached an equilibrium by about the 2030s-2040s. That means, it would have taken roughly 80-90 years (the HPP was put into commercial operation on October 19, 1959 - TASS). With things going into reverse, these consequences will be felt for two or three generations," Maleyev, who is also chairman at the regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society, told TASS. "With the nesting of birds, it is a little faster, but the soils are more complicated, and hydrogeology is even more complicated."
On 6, 2023, Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka HPP, causing an uncontrolled water discharge, which killed 55 people died and injured 175. The destruction of the plant caused serious damage to the environment, and farm fields along the Dnieper were washed away. According to the region’s agriculture officials, the collapse of the dam ruined an irrigation system that fed water to 344,000 hectares of farmland from the North Crimean and Kakhovka canals.