The Kakhovka Reservoir (Ukrainian: Каховське водосховище, romanized: Kakhovs'ke vodoskhovyshche) was a water reservoir on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It was created in 1956 by construction of the Kakhovka Dam at Nova Kakhovka. It was one of several reservoirs in the Dnieper reservoir cascade.
The dam was breached on 6 June 2023, which consensus attributes to Russian forces mining and blowing the base of the dam, while Russia alternatively described it as a "terrorist" act, in the case of the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, or as caused by a lack of maintenance, in the case of the Russian government. By the end of June, the reservoir was completely dry.
Geography
The reservoir covered a total area of 2,155 km2 (832 sq mi) in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts of Ukraine. It was 240 km (150 mi) long and up to 23 km (14 mi) wide. The depth varied from 3 to 26 m (9.8 to 85.3 ft; 1.6 to 14.2 fathoms) and averaged 8.4 m (28 ft; 4.6 fathoms). The total water volume was 18.2 km3 (4.4 cu mi). The Kakhovka dam has resulted in the natural water level of the Dnieper River being raised 16 m (52 ft). Locals sometimes referred to the reservoir as the Kakhovka Sea (Ukrainian: Каховське море, romanized: Kakhovs'ke more) as the other side of the river bank could not be seen at some points.
It was used mainly to supply hydroelectric stations, the Krasnoznamianka Irrigation System, the Kakhovka Irrigation System, industrial plants such as the 5.7 GW Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, freshwater fish farms, the North Crimean Canal and the Dnipro – Kryvyi Rih Canal. Its creation formed a deep-water route for ships to sail up the Dnieper.
History
The reservoir's construction had submerged archaeological sites, including Scythian pots and Cossack fortifications. Mykhailo Mulenko, head of the conservation department at the Khortytsia nature reserve, has argued that the Soviet Union deliberately submerged these sites to erase Ukraine's pre-Russian history. These sites have re-emerged after the dam was breached and the reservoir was drained.
