The shelling of the Dniester hydroelectric power station by the Russians is fraught with the most serious, even catastrophic consequences for the territories located downstream and for Odessa.
This is the opinion reached by experts interviewed by Dumskaya.
The hydroelectric power station, which is located at the junction of the administrative borders of the Chernivtsi, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia regions and the state border with the Republic of Moldova, was subjected to a missile strike on the morning of November 28. The occupiers hit the station’s dam.
Thus, residents of the Moldovan village of Byrnova in the Ocnita district reported that at approximately 6:00 a.m., four Russian missiles flew north through Moldovan airspace, after which characteristic sounds of explosions were heard in the area of the hydroelectric power station.
The dam has held up, but new blows could destroy it, experts say. What will happen in the worst-case scenario?
The Dniester hydroelectric power station was put into operation in 1981. Upstream, a 194 km long reservoir was formed with a water surface area of about 142 square kilometers and a volume of 3 billion cubic meters. The maximum depth of the reservoir is 54 meters.
“Hydroelectric power plants built during the Soviet era have a significant margin of safety; they were built taking into account the likelihood of an enemy attack, but, as the experience of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station shows , they can be destroyed,” said Igor Gerzhik, head of the scientific department of the Tiligulsky regional landscape park.
“This will lead to serious disruption of existing natural systems,” the scientist added.
If something like this happens to the Dniester hydroelectric power station dam, water will be released into the Dniester, the river level in the lower reaches will rise catastrophically, which will lead to the flooding of vast territories in Ukraine, in particular in the Odessa region, and Moldova.
One of the obvious consequences of such an emergency is that the “extra” Dniester waters will make it impossible to move along the Odessa-Reni highway, which is strategically important in economic and military terms and which has been flooded repeatedly, albeit briefly, already in this century. Colossal damage will be caused to agriculture.
In addition, the man-made flood will disrupt the operation of the water intake at the main pumping station “Dniester”, which supplies Odessa and the surrounding area with drinking water. And this is a humanitarian catastrophe.
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