This is a challenge not only for Ukraine, but for all the countries of the Black Sea region: expert estimated the consequences of the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP

The undermining of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station (HPP) threatens serious environmental consequences not only for Ukraine. It is about the pollution of the Black Sea water area and the destruction of the most valuable natural object with the international status of the Nizhnyodniprovskyi National Nature Park. This was announced today, June 8, on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel by the ecologist, head of the public organization “Green Leaf” Vladyslav Balynskyi.

According to him, the scale of the environmental disaster is so huge that it will take years to fully assess it.

“The whole world of islands, the world of wetland vegetation and animals has already disappeared. About a thousand living organisms were recorded in the Nizhnyodniprovskyi National Park. And this whole world with all its biodiversity was destroyed in one moment. The National Nature Park was unique and protected by international conventions, including the Ramsar Convention, the Bonn Convention, and the Emerald Network. The world has not yet encountered such processes of landscape destruction, because we are talking about the destruction of an entire landscape complex,” said Balynskyi.

He added that the area of the Nizhnyodniprovskyi National Park is 80,000 hectares.

“All the silt that has accumulated over the years and all the effluents of industrial enterprises that have entered the reservoir and settled to the bottom, now pose a very serious threat. We will face it soon, and we will feel the consequences, I think, for decades. This is a problem not only of Ukraine, but also of all the Black Sea countries, because in ecology, all biocenosis systems are interconnected, besides, the sea itself will quickly spread all these sediments along the coastline along the coastal current,” said the ecologist.

Vladyslav Balynsky drew attention to the fact that it is a matter of both chemical and biological pollution, as cattle cemeteries, cemeteries, and the contents of cesspools were washed away.

“It is necessary to take serious measures now,” he is confident.