Fearing Nova Kakhovka could one day collapse, Andrii Seletskyi began project on local history in 2020. His knowledge now offers hope
ndrii Seletskyi stands on what was, until Tuesday morning, the bank of the Dnipro River and looks out at the water, continously receding. The young mayor’s town is 60 miles north-east and upstream of the now ruined Nova Kakhovka dam, and he does not know where the riverwaters will finally settle.
“In depth, the water has gone out over five metres; in width it is going out about 50 to 70 centimetres an hour,” the mayor says, standing on the old riverbank as the falling levels leave behind a bed of silty mud and a dominating musty, rotten smell. “It would be far worse if it was warmer,” he adds; the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees today and a rain storm sweeps in.In his office Seletskyi explains further.
Before the dam was completed, there were a series of smaller rivers lying in a floodplain, the nearest of which was the Bystryk. Its banks were 1km away from Novovorontsovka, Seletskyi says, pointing out the distance on the wartime photograph. The retreat of the Dnipro will require the town to find other water sources, he says, as he does not expect the dam to be rebuilt.
Mines from the current war and even old explosives from the second world war remain a danger – specialist teams have been deployed five times so far to tackle contemporary and historic weaponry. The Dnipro was scene of a vast battle in late 1943, and military helmets and skulls, thought to be from that time, have ghoulishly appeared on the surface of the mud left be the receding waters.
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