World Bank to assess damage after destruction of Ukraine dam

Official says destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam has ‘very serious impact’ on essential services and environment.

The World Bank will support Ukraine by conducting a rapid assessment of damage and needs after Tuesday’s destruction of a massive hydroelectric dam on the front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces, a top bank official said.

World Bank general manager for operations Anna Bjerde said on Twitter on Wednesday that the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam had “many very serious consequences for essential services and the wider environment”.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, also writing on Twitter, said he had spoken with Bjerde about the impact of the dam’s collapse, and she assured him that the World Bank would conduct a prompt assessment of damage and needs.

Ukrainians left flooded homes on Wednesday as floodwaters swept the south after the dam’s destruction, with Russia and Ukraine swapping blame for the disaster.

Ukraine said the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, inundate tens of thousands of hectares of farmland and turn at least 500,000 hectares without irrigation into “deserts”.

Bjerde said the new damage assessment would build on the bank’s previous analysis of damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure and buildings, which estimated it would cost $411 billion to rebuild Ukraine’s economy after the Russian invasion.

The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it was “deeply concerned” about the social, economic and environmental consequences of the dam’s destruction.