Due to the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam, four systems of irrigation canals were left without water, the BBC writes.
Before the invasion, they supplied water to 5.8 thousand square kilometers of fields, on which about two million tons of grain were grown per year.
According to NASAʼs program director Inbal Becker-Reshef, many areas downstream of the reservoir were initially flooded after the dam broke, but the long-term problem facing food production will be the loss of water supplies due to the drying up of large canal systems.
“[Canals] mostly irrigate summer crops… like corn, soybeans, sunflowers. But they also irrigate wheat, which is a winter crop, and then a lot of vegetables and fruits like melons,” she noted.
- After the Russians blew up the Kakhovka HPP, the water retreated from the banks of the reservoir by 1 300-1 600 meters. The Dnipro is actually returning to its course, in which it was 70 years ago.