Aqua wars

Targeting water: Servicemen of the National Guard of Ukraine delivering food to the residents of a flooded area in Kherson, following damage sustained at Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam. — AFP

AROUND six months ago, an explosion ripped apart Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, unleashing floods that killed 58 people, devastated the landscape along the Dnipro River and cut off water to productive farmland.

The destruction of the dam – which Ukrainian officials and the European Parliament blame on Russia, even though the structure was under Russian control – was one in a series of attacks on water infrastructure that have occurred during the Russia-Ukraine war.