The United Nations has warned on Tuesday that the rupture of the huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro river in Ukraine will have a major impact on world food security, will lead to an increase in food prices and could cause problems of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.
The dam, part of the Kajovka hydroelectric power plant, burst in the early hours of June 6, causing part of the 18 cubic kilometers of retained water to collapse onto a large swath of farmland in southern Ukraine.
It is not clear exactly what caused the breach, although Norwegian seismologists and US satellites have detected what appears to be an explosion and conversations intercepted by Kyiv between Russian soldiers suggest that Russia is responsible for what happened. However, Ukraine and Russia blame each other for blowing it up.
The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, told the BBC that the impact on food security could be significant.
"This is a breadbasket: this whole area that runs down to the Black Sea and Crimea is a breadbasket not only for Ukraine but also for the world," Griffiths told the BBC. "We already have difficulties with food security, but I am sure that food prices will increase."
"It's almost inevitable that we're going to see huge, huge problems with harvesting and planting for the next crop. So what we're going to see is a huge impact on global food security – that's what's going to happen."
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world's leading agricultural producers and major players in the markets for wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds, and sunflower oil.
In addition, up to 700,000 people depended on the reservoir for drinking water. Without clean water, Griffiths said, these people can be susceptible to disease, with children being the most vulnerable in this situation.
Griffiths also said that damage of this magnitude to civilian infrastructure is completely contrary to international humanitarian law, including the Geneva conventions. "That goes without saying. Whoever did it has violated the Geneva conventions," Griffiths said.
