If Ukraine decides not to restore the Kakhovka hydroelectric station after the explosion, then about 1.5 million people will be forced to move from the south of the state.

This was announced on air of the program "Breakfast with 1+1" by urbanist Vitaliy Selyk.

Selik explained why the Kakhovka HPP still needs to be rebuilt. In particular, the Kakhovka reservoir saturates the entire south of Ukraine with life: Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk regions.

"75% of Kryvyi Rih depends on this reservoir. The largest plant ArcelorMittal depends on water from the Kakhovka "sea". If we do not restore it, we can say that we will resettle one and a half million people from southern Ukraine to other regions, because this region will become impossible to live. There will be no drinking water, there will be no enterprises where people can work, and nature will be completely dried, natural diversity will completely change," the urbanist said.

He is convinced that southerners will return to their homes after the consequences of flooding. Therefore, both the station and the reservoir should be restored.

"The practice of the last year of the war, which is being waged in Ukraine, shows that people return home very quickly. We see that people are ready to return to dilapidated houses, to live in basements, in sheds – just to live on their land. Therefore, the basic is the restoration of this station and the reservoir, which will provide drinking water," said Selyk.

He also estimated how long it could take to rebuild the Kakhovka HPP.

"

It can take three to five years, because this is a large-scale project. But it is worth it to return life to our Ukrainian lands," the expert said.

Recall, according to estimates of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the cost of building a new Kakhovka HPP may be about $ 1 billion. We are talking not only about the installation of new hydraulic units, but also about restoring the integrity of a huge dam.

What is happening in the flooded Kherson region

The chief hydrologist of the Kherson region Yuriy Kiriak said that in one of the largest districts of the regional center the water level over the past 29 hours has increased by almost 5 m. Currently, in Kherson there is a tendency to reduce the arrival of water. However, the situation may become more complicated, because it is not known in what condition the structure of the destroyed hydroelectric station is now.

In occupied Nova Kakhovka, water stopped arriving. The effects of flooding can be assessed after the water subsides.

According to the estimates of the Kherson regional administration on the morning of June 7, the water level will reach a critical point within 20 hours, and after that it will decline.

In order to reduce flooding in the Kherson region as a result of the explosion of hydroelectric power plants, on June 7, Ukrenergo announced a change in the mode of operation of hydroelectric power plants to reduce the volume of water entering the Kakhovka reservoir.

British intelligence informed that the dam of the Kakhovka HPP continues to collapse, so this may cause new floods in the coming days.

Read also:

• Due to large-scale flooding after the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP, a rare animal may disappear (photo)
• The echoes of the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP will be felt by Odesa: a wave with mud from flooded drains and cemeteries is heading for the sea
• "The area is flooded with feces": a resident of Kherson spoke about an environmental disaster in the city

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