Following the devastating Russian attack on Kakhovka Dam, the AFUO’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal (UCA) – partnered with Rotary Australia World Community Services (RAWCS) – has raised $150,000 to provide emergency assistance to flood victims.
Generous donations from ordinary Australians, corporate organisations and Ukrainian community members have allowed UCA to provide much needed funds to Caritas Ukraine to provide assistance and emergency relief.
“In just 13 days, the Caritas network distributed 100,000 litres of water to residents of about 30 settlements in Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv oblasts suffering from the destruction of Kakhovka Dam,’ said Ms Diahanna Senko, Director of the AFUO’s Humanitarian Aid Initiatives Committee.
“Caritas Ukraine has also been able to provide hygiene kits, food packages, generators and pumps for removing water.
“We will continue to run our special appeal for flood victims and urge all to donate so we can continue to save lives,” she added.
According to a special report prepared by Caritas Ukraine, the immediate urgent humanitarian challenges continue to be:
- shelter and basic needs for evacuated people and those who have remained in flooded areas, especially in rural communities
- assisting people with low mobility and special needs
- access to fresh drinking water
The report also lists the devastating consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam by Russian forces:
- 17,000 people directly impacted, on both the right and the left bank of the Dnipro river.
- an additional 700,000 people in the wider region (four oblasts) who depended on the Kakhovka Reservoir as a source of drinking water also potentially affected
- 150 tonnes of oil drifting along the Dnipro, with a possibility of the oil spill reaching the Mediterranean
- more than 50 thousand hectares of Ukrainian forests flooded (more than the area of Iceland’s forest) – half of which will die
- heavily polluted floodwaters, bearing pesticides, chemicals, dead animals, fish and dolphins
- destruction of habitat for 20,000 wild animals.
>> Click here to donate to the Ukraine Crisis appeal
>> Click here to read the Caritas Ukraine report
