Water in the Dnieper River below the Kakhovka Dam is polluted 28,000 times over the limit – Ministry of Health of Ukraine
Swimming is forbidden in the Black Sea as well as resting on the Ukrainian coast
The water in the Dnieper River is 28,000 times more polluted than the standard limit, the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, told BBC News Ukraine in an interview. According to him, the entire water body below the Kakhovka dam "is unfit for use".
"Therefore, swimming is forbidden, fishing is forbidden, you cannot drink this water, use it to water livestock. When a person swims in such water, diseases [cholera, hepatitis, parasites] can potentially occur. Water treatment facilities have switched to emergency disinfection regimes. Water quality monitoring in the water supply network has been intensified to prevent an outbreak," Liashko explained.
Swimming is forbidden in the Black Sea as well as resting on the Ukrainian coast, and municipal services are cleaning up carcasses of animals, fish and molluscs at the bottom of the Kakhovka Reservoir, so that their decaying matter does not get into the water, the minister clarified.
Liashko hopes that epidemics can be avoided by complying with sanitary norms.
There have been rumours about the first case of cholera in Ukraine, but this is denied by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.
"There have been no cases of cholera among humans. We are conducting epidemiological monitoring of bodies of water and periodically cholera vibrios are detected, both related to flooding and not. This has been the case before," Liashko said.
However, the risks of disease outbreaks are huge, the minister noted.
"Since it is problematic to maintain epidemic prevention conditions, process food and other things without drinking water in sufficient quantities. The water will recede, somewhere there will be marshy terrain, and somewhere it will be drying up, dust will spread. All this is a risk zone," he emphasised.
Hundreds of people still remain in the flooded territories of Kherson Oblast.
According to data on Thursday, 25 people have died in the occupied part of Kherson region due to the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, but these figures, provided by the occupying administration, may be understated.
Data on fatalities on the right bank under Ukrainian control as a result of the flood were last named on June 12: then there were known to be 10 victims.
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