Building a new dam and hydroelectric station at the site of destroyed Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant will take at least five years and require at least $1 billion, head of Ukraine's state-owned energy company Ukrhydroenergo Ihor Syrota said on June 7.
"This is a complex hydroelectric facility that will take time to rebuild. We are currently developing a project for the station's location," he said.
According to Syrota, Ukraine does not yet know the full extent of the damage caused by Russia's destruction of the dam on June 6. Blowing up the dam has sparked a large-scale humanitarian and environmental disaster across southern Ukraine.
Earlier on June 6, Syrota said that Ukraine had decided it would build a new power plant on the site of the destroyed Kakhovka plant once it liberates the territory as it is located on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro River.
The state-run company is also currently looking for ways to establish water supply from reservoirs located up the river to areas that are suffering from water shortages as a result of the dam's destruction.
Ukrainian authorities are planning to drill additional wells in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts in order to access fresh water, Syrota said.
Daria Shulzhenko
