An exceptional 700,000 people, according to Under Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, need access to clean water. The effects of flooding in Ukraine, one of the world’s major grain exporters, are likely to create a rupture in the entire global grain export market, leading to high prices and fewer nutritious meals for millions of people in need.
The UN’s top relief official said on Friday that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is harsher than it was before.
An exceptional 700,000 people, according to Under Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, need access to clean water. He warned that the effects of flooding in one of the world’s major grain exporters are likely to result in lower grain exports, higher food prices globally, and fewer nutritious meals for millions of people in need.
He concluded that this is a viral issue. The fact is that we are just now starting to experience the effects of this deed.
The catastrophic dam breach in Ukraine
The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam broke and its reservoir collapsed on the Dnieper River on Wednesday, adding to the anguish of an area that has endured harsh artillery and missile bombardment for more than a year. The western bank of the Dnieper is held by Ukraine, whereas the Russian forces are in charge of more flood-prone eastern bank. The dam and reservoir are located in the Kherson area, which Moscow unlawfully invaded in September and has been occupying for the last year. It is crucial for fresh water and agriculture in southern Ukraine.
Additional issues include the flooding of significant agricultural areas and the impending challenge of providing cooling water for the biggest nuclear power station in Europe which had been supplied by the dam.
According to Griffiths, the UN has reached 30,000 individuals in regions under Ukrainian authority that have been inundated, mostly via Ukrainian assistance organizations. He said that up to this point, Russia has refused to permit the UN to aid flood victims in any of the territories it manages.
United Nations action plan to tackle this
Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN, was the person Griffiths claimed to have spoken with on Wednesday to request permission from the Russian government for UN teams in Ukraine to go across the front lines to give aid and provide support for Ukrainians in those areas.
The immediate reaction is crucial to saving lives, he added, “but behind that you’ve got a huge, impending problem of an absence of proper potable water for 700,000 people” on both the Ukrainian-controlled and Russian-controlled banks of the river.
Griffiths said that because of the extensive effects, “it’s almost inevitable” that the UN will issue a special request for more aid funding for Ukraine to cope with “a whole new order of magnitude” as a result of the dam’s failure.
The aftereffects of this apocalyptic deed
After this catastrophe, it’s of dire importance to introduce an action plan and tackle it at the earliest possible time. However, this catastrophe has a lot of side effects, including a rupture in the global grain supply chain, both literally and figuratively.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Turkey and the UN mediated with Russia and Ukraine last July to open three Black Sea ports in Ukraine for its grain exports, is being extended. The agreement has resulted in the shipment of more than 30,000 metric tonnes of wheat.
Reopening a pipeline connecting the Black Sea port and the Russian port was a vital Russian demand in this agreement. It included ammonia, an important component of fertilizers.
We all consider it a top priority to open that pipeline and transport ammonia over the Black Sea to the developing world, Griffiths added. With this flooding in Ukraine, this supply chain has a huge possibility of getting ruptured. Bringing this situation under control is of dire importance.
Such incidents point out to us the extent of the devastating consequences of war on its people in all ways: economically, socially, and mentally. Curbing this war is an essential task that’s the responsibility of all people globally.