GENEVA / UKRAINE KAKHOVKA DAM UPDATE

STORY: GENEVA / UKRAINE KAKHOVKA DAM UPDATE
TRT: 2:06
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 JUNE 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST:

1. Med shot, UN Palais with flags
2. Wide shot, spokesperson in press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Saviano Abreu, OCHA Head of Communications in Ukraine:
“We are using today four boats to deliver assistance to these 500 families, a small community that is here close by where I am now. These communities, they already have been facing the consequences of the war. This area was before under Russian control. Late last year around November, it was retaken by Ukraine and now, they are now facing this new catastrophe with the flooding here.”
4. Med shot, journalists in the briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Saviano Abreu, OCHA Head of Communications in Ukraine:
“Our calculation is that 200,000 people in the Dnipro region, for example, they have already been cut off from the water from their houses. But a number of families, of people, that could face this kind of this same situation goes up to more than 700,000 people because these are the people that the reservoir would be the source of drinking water around southern Ukraine, not only here in the Kherson region.”
6. Med shot, spokesperson at podium with screen in the background
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Saviano Abreu, OCHA Head of Communications in Ukraine:
“This area, I think it is one of the most of the mine contaminated parts of the world. We already know that, and here in the southern part of the country it is one of the main issues. It is the reason, why for example, agriculture in Kherson, in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia have been impacted because of the mine contamination, so the floodwater is moving the mines, that is a reality.”
8. Med shot, journalist with speakers at the podium
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Abigail Hartley, Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Donor Relations and Outreach section, UNMAS:
“When the water subside the mines are there. Good thing is that mines float, so they do stay on the surface. But of course there's a lot of other flood debris and they can get buried in sediment. So it is a challenge as the already awful situation there. But the Ukrainian state services have done a good job of de-mining so far in the Ukraine.”
10. Wide shot, speakers at podium with camera
11. Med shot, handy typing
12. Wide shot, press briefing room

STORYLINE:

As hundreds of thousands have been affected by water shortages from the Kakhovka Dam disaster in Ukraine, the UN Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme (WFP) delivered on Friday live-saving water and food to families living in a dramatic situation in a small village in the rural area of the Kherson Region, about 15 kilometers from the front line.

“We are using today four boats to deliver assistance to these 500 families, a small community that is here close by where I am now”, said Saviano Abreu, head of communications for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine. “These communities, they already have been facing the consequences of the war. This area was before under Russian control. Late last year around November, it was retaken by Ukraine and now, they are now facing this new catastrophe with the flooding here.”

The fast depletion of the Kakhovka Reservoir, caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam during the early hours of 6 June, is leading to a grim situation in southern Ukraine, where tens of thousands of people have already lost access to piped water, mainly in Dnipropetrovska oblast.

The reservoir – one of the largest in Europe and source of drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people – is reportedly decreased by 70 per cent of its capacity, according to Ukrainian authorities. The width of the reservoir decreased from 3 to 1 kilometer and the water level is now at around 7 meters, below the threshold of 12 meters when it stops working as a water reservoir.

“Our calculation is that 200,000 people in the Dnipro region, for example, they have already been cut off from the water from their houses,” reported Mr. Abreu. “But a number of families, of people, that could face this kind of this same situation goes up to more than 700,000 people because these are the people that the reservoir would be the source of drinking water around southern Ukraine, not only here in the Kherson region.”

Large urban areas in Dnipropetrovska oblast, including Pokrovska, Nikopolska and Marhanetska, are completely cut off from centralized water and others like Apostolivska and Zelenodolska have extremely limited access. This has left over 210,000 people, in this area alone, in urgent need of life-saving water, according to estimates from the United Nations and its humanitarian partners.

The receding floodwater, however, created new challenges to people already facing humanitarian needs in Ukraine such as landmines.

“This area, I think it is one of the most mine contaminated parts of the world,” said Mr Saviano. “We already know that, and here in the southern part of the country it is one of the main issues. It is the reason, why for example, agriculture in Kherson, in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia have been impacted because of the mine contamination, so the floodwater is moving the mines, that is a reality.”

Abigail Hartley, Chief of Policy, Advocacy and Donor Relations section from the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) added that “when the water subside the mines are there. Good thing is that mines float, so they do stay on the surface. But, of course, there's a lot of other flood debris and they can get buried in sediment. So, it is a challenge as the already awful situation there. But the Ukrainian state services have done a good job of de-mining so far in the Ukraine.”

Since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on June 6th, OCHA and its humanitarian partners continued life-saving operations and delivered at least 10 inter-agency convoys with vital items to thousands of people affected by the disaster.