Scientists want to include the territory of the former Kakhovka Reservoir in the UNESCO World Heritage list

Until the mid-20th century, the "Great Meadow" stretched across the lower reaches of the Dnieper — a vast natural territory covering about 2155 square kilometers with meadows, swamps, channels, and islands.

These hard-to-reach places played an important role in the history of Ukraine. In the 16th century, they became one of the centers of Zaporozhian Cossacks, and traces of human life here date back to the Stone Age.

In the 1950s, the "Great Meadow" was flooded after the construction of the Kakhovka HPP. Ancient riverbeds, islands, meadows, and numerous historical monuments ended up underwater.

On June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka HPP dam was blown up. About 18 cubic kilometers of water poured out of the reservoir, causing catastrophic flooding of cities and villages downstream of the Dnieper.

Ecosystem Restoration and Archaeological Finds

After the water receded, unexpected changes began at the reservoir site. As the British newspaper The Guardian writes, the former bottom of the reservoir began to rapidly transform into a natural area, similar to what existed before the dam's construction. Swamps, meadows, islands, and sandy uplands reappeared. Trees and shrubs began to grow in the exposed areas.

Biologist Pavel Aleinik told journalists that in just three years, trees on the territory of the former reservoir grew up to seven meters. According to the scientist, the vegetation could become a kind of green shield against toxic heavy metals detected in the bottom sediments.

The destruction of the dam also opened new opportunities for archaeologists. Today, expeditions of underwater and terrestrial archaeologists are working on Khortytsia Island, approximately 45 kilometers from which the frontline passes. While drones regularly fly over the field camp and air defense operates, scientists from the Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine are exploring the exposed bottom.

The drop in water level by 6-8 meters and the movement of millions of tons of sand brought to the surface artifacts from the Neolithic and Bronze Age to antiquity and the times of the Cossacks. Among the finds are a Bronze Age deer antler with a processed tip for applying patterns on ceramics or leather, a fragment, probably of Scythian pottery, part of a Byzantine amphora, an 18th-century anchor, as well as a dugout canoe made from a single tree trunk, which lay in the water for about a thousand years.

Threat of New Dam Construction

Now, a discussion has unfolded in Ukraine about the future of the Kakhovka Reservoir. Its restoration is primarily necessary for irrigating agricultural lands in the south of the country. Shortly after the dam's destruction, the Ukrainian government approved a project to prepare for the reconstruction of the Kakhovka HPP after the war ends.

However, historians, environmentalists, and archaeologists believe that re-flooding the "Great Meadow" will lead to the loss of a unique natural and historical territory that is currently recovering. More than a hundred Ukrainian public and scientific organizations advocate for its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage list. A corresponding appeal has already been sent to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO Affairs.

"The construction of the dam was an ecocide, its destruction was an ecocide, and a third ecocide will be its restoration," the publication quotes Pavel Aleinik.

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