According to scientists, such elements can seriously threaten the health of local residents.
Points of attention
- Detonation of Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Russia has led to the accumulation of 83,000 tons of toxic elements at the bottom of the reservoir, posing serious health risks to the local population.
- The spread of toxic substances from the reservoir into the Dnieper waters raises concerns about water pollution and ecosystem damage.
- Scientists analyze the contamination levels of heavy metals and toxic elements post-disaster, emphasizing the impact on human health from using contaminated water sources.
Scientists are concerned about toxic elements at the bottom of the Kakhovka Reservoir
The collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam not only destroyed local ecosystems, but also led to their contamination with heavy metals and other toxic elements that were stored in the sediment at the bottom of the reservoir.
Scientists made these conclusions by analyzing the level of contamination with these elements before the disaster and modeling their spread after the Russian Federation's war crime.
According to researchers, because some local residents still use water from the lakes left after the dam was blown up, toxic elements can seriously threaten their health.
Scientists say that the operation of many upstream plants over a long period of time has polluted the waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir with elements such as nickel, cadmium and lead. Scientists have estimated that this could have led to the accumulation of approximately 83,000 tons of these and other toxic elements in a layer of sediment about 1.5 meters thick at the bottom of the reservoir.
Scientists noted that after the dam was breached, this contaminated sediment spread both downstream and upstream through turbulent flows that mixed different layers of water. Currently, less than 1% of the nearly two cubic kilometers of sediment has washed downstream, but seasonal floods are washing toxic elements out of the dried sediment at the site of the former reservoir and returning them to the waters of the Dnieper.
Another threat to the affected area is that over time, these toxic elements accumulate in plants and animal bodies, which can also reach the human body.
As a reminder, on the night of June 6, 2023, the Russian occupiers blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which they had controlled for over a year. The blast destroyed the engine room and flooded dozens of settlements, including the city of Kherson.
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