ISTANBUL

The head of Ukraine’s hydropower generating company said on Thursday that the water level at the Kakhovka Reservoir following the Kakhovka dam blast has dropped below the “dead” point of 12.7 meters. 

“The level is already 12.5 meters. This is lower than the ‘dead’ point of 12.7 meters, when we can no longer withdraw water for settlements and for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Ukrhydroenergo CEO Ihor Syrota said on the country’s United News service.

Syrota said the reservoir’s water level may continue to drop for another seven to eight days if the current rate of the drop is one meter per day, further indicating that half of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is already completely underwater.

"If the dam in the lower part is destroyed to the very base, the depth of the reservoir will be no more than three meters, that is, it will decrease in width from 3.5 kilometers, as it was before the explosion, to 1-1.2 kilometers,” he said.

He added that it will take a year to build an overpass over the flooded region and dismantle the damaged facility, while the construction of a new station will take about five years, according to preliminary estimates.

Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday blamed each other for blowing up the Kakhovka dam, which flooded neighboring settlements, endangered crops, threatened water supplies and led to the evacuation of residents.

Moscow accused Ukraine of attempting to cut Crimea off from the fresh water it receives from the Kakhovka Reservoir, which was formed by the dam, while Kyiv claimed that Russia tried to slow an expected counteroffensive.​​​​​​​