World Bank to assess damaged Ukraine dam
Washington, The Gulf Observer: The World Bank will support Ukraine by conducting a rapid assessment of damages and needs after the destruction of a huge hydroelectric dam on the front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces, a top bank official has said.
Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s managing director for operations, in a tweet said the destruction of the Novo Kakhovka dam had “many very serious consequences for essential service delivery and the broader environment.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, also writing on Twitter, said he spoke with Bjerde about the impact of the dam’s collapse, and she assured him the World Bank would carry out a rapid assessment of the damages and needs.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that international aid groups must take immediate action to tackle the aftermath of the destruction of a hydropower dam in Ukraine and any group not on the spot helping is simply incapable.
“It is necessary for international organisations, like the International Committee of the Red Cross, to get immediately involved in the rescue operation and help people in the occupied part of Kherson region,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address.
“If an international organisation is not present in the disaster zone, it means it does not exist at all or is incapable.”
Zelenskyy said residents in areas of southern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops were without water, food or medical help and it was impossible to determine how many people in this area might die.
