As Floodwaters Recede, Ukrainian Authorities Brace for Possible Disease Outbreaks

Nearly two weeks after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine the floodwaters are receding, but local officials are grappling with a new concern: the potential for outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

On Saturday, local officials in Kherson and Mykolaiv, the two regions most affected by the flooding on the Dnipro River unleashed when the dam collapsed, outlined plans to ensure safe drinking water. And doctors in hospitals across those regions have been warned to prepare for possible outbreaks of infectious diseases.

“Currently, trucks carrying essential medical supplies for infectious diseases such as cholera are being unloaded,” Oleksandr Chebotarov, the medical director at the Kherson City Clinical Hospital, said in a phone interview on Saturday. “As of today, we have not had any reported cases of illness, but we are actively preparing.”

The full scale of the disaster, which drained a giant reservoir used for drinking water and irrigation, is only beginning to come into focus. Hundreds of residential areas are still inundated, including some under Russian occupation. International humanitarian organizations have shared concerns about widespread pollution and the chances of illness, but the Ukrainian health authorities maintain that they are vigilantly monitoring for signs of disease.

The potential for widespread disease comes as Ukraine’s forces are fighting in the early stages of a counteroffensive, trying to wrest back control of Russian-occupied areas. Hanna Maliar, a Ukrainian deputy minister of defense, said late Friday in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s forces were “gradually moving forward” in the country’s south, and that in the east they were up against concerted Russian efforts to “to stop the offensive actions of the Ukrainian troops.”

On Saturday, a Russian anti-tank missile hit a civilian car in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, killing two people, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said in a Telegram statement.

He posted images of smoke rising from the wreckage of a mangled car and said that the “direct hit” on the vehicle had killed a 42-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman.

But as the Ukrainian military campaign ramps up, civilians in areas near the front line now face not just the threat of fighting but also the specter of illness. Floods can increase the transmission of communicable, waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A.

Jarno Habicht, the head of the World Health Organization’s country office in Ukraine, said in a statement to reporters this week that the organization had provided cholera kits to people in the Kherson region and neighboring areas “as a preventive measure” in the spring, before the dam was destroyed.

But Dr. Habicht