Remembering the Destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam

Today marks three years since the Nova Kakhovka dam’s destruction on the Dnipro river, which tragically resulted in human losses and released contaminants into the Black Sea.

Shortly after the event, the joint EU/UNDP EU4EMBLAS project carried out an assessment and analyses of pollution, which revealed 106 organic contaminants in marine water samples and 68 in sediments. Now many of these contaminants have likely dissolved or accumulated in the sediments of the Dnipro River and the Black Sea. Read more here Enhanced monitoring is crucial to assess the ongoing impacts of the disaster. Currently ongoing “Investigative monitoring of the Black Sea” by EU4EMBLAS will bring follow-up data on the situation in the area impacted by the event. The preliminary results are showing that the Black Sea ecosystem is changing – observed in Odesa Bay as a direct impact of Nova Kakhovka destruction, as well as the war. The extent of changes is not yet fully known.

With EU support, EU4EMBLAS has recently completed the provision of state-of-the-art laboratory equipment to the Odesa laboratory of the Ukrainian Center for the Ecology of the Sea, including training of laboratory staff. The new equipment will allow the analysis of water and sediment pollution by organic pollutants and microplastics directly in Ukraine. This will improve our capacity to understand and address the situation for the protection of the Black Sea.