Water level near Khortytsia Island dropped

The researcher of the Nature Protection Sector of the Khortytsia National Reserve Mykhailo Mulenko said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"For the Khortytsia floodplain, the undermining of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant threatens to destroy it (the floodplain). In the most dramatic scenario, it will be a fish kill, decomposition of aquatic vegetation, and drying out of the forest. This is a threat to the ecosystem," he said.

According to Mulenko, the total water level in the Kakhovka reservoir has dropped by 3.87 cm since 20:00 on June 5.

The Facebook page of the Khortytsia National Reserve states that the hydrological regime of the Dnipro River in the area of Khortytsia Island has been regulated by the technological processes of the Kakhovka HPP since 1958. Since the dam has been destroyed, the water level is decreasing.

The rate of water level decline is lower than predicted and tends to decrease. In the floodplain of Khortytsia Island, the level was half a meter lower than normal for this period of the year, but not critical. The reserve's experts say that it is currently difficult to predict the further state of the Khortytsia floodplain, as the nature and extent of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam and, thus, the lowest peak water level are not known.

As Ukrinform reported, as of June 7, the water level in Zaporizhzhia, which was also affected by the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP, was dropping by 5 cm per hour.