Battered by calamities both natural and man-made, the people of Ukraine are a testament to resilience and unwavering hope. The rupture of the Kakhovka dam in June caused catastrophic floods that inundated villages, ruined farmlands, and left hundreds of thousands deprived of clean drinking water. Months since the disaster, Ukrainians still grapple with water scarcity but display a staunch determination in surmounting the aftermath.
Southern Ukraine’s pastoral tranquility was shattered when news of the dam’s rupture reached Svitlana Kridiner. She was acutely aware that her home in the nearby village stood at the mercy of the oncoming deluge. Two days later, the floodwaters arrived, irrevocably altering the tranquil rhythm of her diary farm.
Kridiner and her husband, Vasyl, frantically evacuated their livestock and necessary equipment, leaving behind the majority of their possessions to the mercy of an impending deluge. Hours later, their farmstead was submerged, marking the devastating outline of the event’s destructive force in their formerly peaceful village; Afanasiivka, located 70km from the ruptured dam.
Indelible watermarks on the barn walls serve as haunting reminders of the traumas they endured. A once plentiful hay reserve for the winter consumption of their cows was destroyed, along with the rest of the animal feed. Despite the damage, Svitlana remains grateful that the rising waters, which measured six meters, did not ravage the structures entirely.
Adding to their plight, Afanasiivka is a frontline town littered with unexploded ordnances from the ongoing conflict. Svitlana shows us evidence of this insidious decay – a rocket wedged firmly in the earth of her hayfield. “We have to mow around it,” she reveals, painting a surreal image of life near a warzone.
The government’s offer of a paltry 5,000 hryvnia as compensation fell woefully inadequate to cover their losses. Unperturbed, Svitlana exudes an inspiring stubborn optimism, “Maybe we will take out another loan, mow some hay or buy some more. We will make it, rest assured.”
This spirit of endurance echoes among others in the disaster-stricken area. In a neighboring village, Vadym Sheremet surveys the ruins of his farmstead with an indefatigable resolve. His crops, including barley, wheat, and sunflowers were completely decimated by the floods, and yet Sheremet speaks not of despair but of reconstruction and resilience.
The calamitous aftermath of the dam’s rupture was termed “one of the largest man-made disasters of our time”, according to the Wilson Centre. The devastation has rendered over one million hectares of land in three southern oblasts of Ukraine – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk – barren for the next three to five years due to lack of a water supply. The cost of the destruction is estimated at $2bn, a figure that pales when confronting the human cost involved.
Despite the adversities they face, the resilient people of Ukraine are resolved to rebuild their lives one day at a time. Sheremet, for instance, is already making plans to construct a new house and lay new water supply lines to help his community.
The aura of catastrophe was augmented for Sheremet when he lost his 20-year-old son, Ivan, to an explosion from an seemly abandoned munition. Plagued by unfathomable loss and exhausting struggles, Sheremet’s indomitable spirit embodies the essence of the Ukrainian people in the aftermath of these trials. “We have to be strong. We have to live. We will make it,” he expresses his fortitude poignantly, echoing the resolve of a nation under duress.
