Water levels in a reservoir that supplies southern Ukraine with drinking water have reached a 30-year high, raising the risk of flooding in the area and pointing to a lack of regulation. The sudden rise in levels at the Kakhovka reservoir is reflected in altimeter data – which satellites use to measure altitude – published Friday by Theia, a French earth data provider.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service has not recorded such high water levels at the dam since 1992, when it began publishing data. Russian forces control the dam and nearby power plant, which are vital to managing the reservoir’s water levels.
An analysis of satellite images in the DailyExpertNews over a period of several months also showed that the water level has risen significantly and is now covering sandbanks along the waterway. In recent days, the reservoir has reached more worrying levels and even seems to rise above the top of the dam.
The development is a dramatic turnaround just a few months after the water level in the reservoir reached an all-time low. At the time, Ukrainian officials expressed concern about a lack of drinking water, agriculture and the cooling of the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. At the end of February, the water level was almost two meters below the usual average.
Recent videos and satellite images from late last year show that at least three of the gates controlling the flow of water through the dam were opened – apparently by Russian forces in control of the Kakhovka power plant. That, in turn, caused water to flow through at an alarming rate during the winter, despite relatively little water entering the reservoir upstream.
It is unclear how the water level has risen so much since then. But David Helms, a former U.S. Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist who studies the dam, said Russian forces appear to have kept too few gates open to control the flow of winter snowmelt and spring rains. Mr Helms compared the effect to a leaking bucket and said too much water has entered the reservoir.
“What the river is doing is dumping a lot of water,” Mr Helms said. “And it’s much higher than the discharge rate.”
The dam, which lies along the front line, has been a point of tension throughout the war. In August, a Ukrainian artillery strike targeted a bridge along the dam, although the dam suffered no damage. Then, in November, Russian forces deliberately destroyed a portion of the road directly above the dam’s gates, triggering an explosion dangerously close to vital dam infrastructure.
