More than one million people in Ukraine are grappling with severe water shortages following the catastrophic Kakhovka Dam explosion. An estimated 310,000 children in the Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions are currently facing lack od water supplies, and around 700,000 people urgently need assistance to obtain safe drinking water.

The Kakhovka Reservoir, once one of Europe’s largest, covering a vast expanse of 18 cubic kilometers (comparable in volume to the Great Salt Lake in Utah, United States), served as a primary water source for numerous towns, villages, and agricultural lands in southern Ukraine.

The devastating destruction of the dam on June 6 triggered extensive flooding, affecting 80 towns and villages along the Dnipro River. This catastrophe forced around 3,600 people, including 600 children, to evacuate their homes as water levels surged, submerging rooftops in some communities.

The southern Dnipro region has been especially hard-hit, with water levels in the Dnipro River plummeting by 70%. This drop has disabled pumping stations and deprived riverbank communities of their primary water source. Consequently, these communities now rely solely on aid organizations for their drinking water supply.