CHRISTIAN AID has renewed its emergency humanitarian appeal for Ukraine after devastating floods forced thousands of people to leave their homes when the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed.
The full impact of rising water along both sides of the frontline Dnipro River has yet to be seen, but the United Nations fears it could be an environmental disaster. The Ukrainian authorities say that at least 37 towns and villages have been flooded and 16,000 people have left their homes since the dam was blown up on the morning of 6 June.
Christian Aid and Blythswood Care local partner Heritage Ukraine got to work immediately by supplying food, water and shelter. Iryna Dobrohorska, Christian Aid’s Ukraine Response Director, said: “The floods started while our partner was already delivering food in the Mykolaiv region as part of its continuing relief work right next to the Dnipro river. They filled up their van with as many people as they could take back to the safety of their hub in Odesa where they are being provided with food, shelter and support.”
Over the coming days, Heritage Ukraine along with Christian Aid’s other partners, Alliance for Public Health and World Jewish Relief, will be providing humanitarian supplies to people who have had to leave the affected areas of southern Ukraine.
Located on the Dnieper River in Kherson Oblast, the Kakhovkadam was under the control of the Russian military, which had seized it in the early days of its invasion of Ukraine. There is a dispute over who breached the dam.
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* Sources: Christian Aid and news reporting