Experts to UNESCO: Don't Rebuild the Kakhovka Dam — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Over 100 Ukrainian NGOs are supporting a bid to designate the 2,155 sq km drained bed of the Nova Kakhovka reservoir — dubbed the "great meadow" — as a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a letter of intent already sent.
- The Nova Kakhovka dam, a 30-metre high, 3km-long structure completed in 1956, was destroyed on 6 June 2023, releasing 18 cubic km of water that inundated towns on both sides of the frontline; most analysts blame Russia.
- Archaeologists on Khortytsia island have recovered a bronze-age deer antler tool, Scythian ceramic shards, a Byzantine amphora, an 18th-century anchor, and a millennium-old dugout canoe preserved by centuries of river immersion.
- The drained reservoir has regenerated rapidly into wetlands and grassland with vegetation reaching 7 metres in just three years, though biologist Pavlo Oliinyk flagged toxic heavy metals now exposed on the reservoir bed.
- The Ukrainian government has launched a pilot project with state-owned Ukrhydroenergo to prepare for dam reconstruction and restore the reservoir to irrigate southern farmlands, directly conflicting with the preservation campaign.
- Archaeologist Valeriy Nefedov, who had pushed for the dam's dismantling since the 1990s, called the dam's construction "the first crime," its destruction "the second," and any rebuilding "the third ecocide."
Why it matters: The bid sets up a direct collision between Ukraine's heritage and ecology advocates — backed by 100+ NGOs and a UNESCO application — and the government's reconstruction plans with Ukrhydroenergo to restore irrigation for southern farmlands. The site carries extraordinary historical depth, from Mesolithic traces to the Zaporizhzhian Cossack stronghold, and has already regenerated 7-metre vegetation in just three years, meaning whatever UNESCO decides will determine whether this fast-recovering landscape is preserved or re-flooded.
Ask SkimNews
