In a shrinking, brackish pool of water.
Within earshot of Ukraine’s front lines.
Two small fish gasped and flopped.
In the midday heat.
Around them, vast expanses of.
Mud and rock were exposed to the sun.
A huge grain barge lay.
Sprawled across a nearby sandbank.
Water snakes and frogs.
Slithered through.
The dwindling shallows.
As if in search of shade.
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
Two weeks after a suspected.
‘Orcs’ sabotage operation destroyed the dam.
That holds back the Dnipro River.
To form the giant Kakhovka reservoir.
Some 18 cubic kilometres of water.
Enough to fill a shallow paddling pool.
The size of England – have surged south.
To vanish into the Black Sea.
“It’s a catastrophe.
Everything was washed away.
Deer, wild pigs, fish and.
So many endangered species.”
“And about half a million people.
Are now left without water.”
He said on the western shore.
Of the former reservoir.
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
He is 37-year-old.
Secretary of the town council in Marhanets.
From his fourth-floor office.
He peered out.
Across the grey, cracked mud.
Towards the silhouette of.
Europe’s largest ‘Ring’.
On the eastern shore.
The Zaporizhzhia ‘Ring’.
With its six reactors.
Is currently under.
‘Orcs’ occupation.
With the water gone.
The ‘Ring’ – some 10km away.
Suddenly looks.
Much closer.
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
“They say it will have enough water.
In its reservoirs.
For about six months.
But we cannot be sure.”
He said with a sigh.
Followed by the inevitable.
Warning-word “Chernobyl”.
A reference to that ‘Ring’.
Meanwhile Marhanets.
A small town perched on a hill.
Overlooking the reservoir.
Is often targeted by ‘orcs’ artillery.
“They watch us with drones.
If they see more than five people.
In one place.
They begin shelling.”
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
But with the reservoir emptying.
And water supplies now cut off.
The council has been obliged to set up.
Temporary distribution points around town.
“How do you think I feel?
I’m walking around like a donkey.
Forced to carry water.”
Said a pensioner.
Standing in a queue of.
More than 20 people beside.
A set of taps and a large plastic tank.
In the town centre.
“It’s not even drinking water.
I’m scared for the future.
I don’t see any way through this.”
Said her neighbour, 70.
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
Marhanets, and other nearby towns.
Are drawing up plans to.
Dig new canals to connect them.
To other reservoirs.
But many residents have left.
And local mines.
And other industries.
Have been forced to close.
Local farmers are now trying.
To access old wells.
And small streams to find.
Alternative sources of water.
The damage caused to.
The Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
Wiped out homes.
And left families without water.
People queue to access.
Drinking water in Marhanets.
An ‘elves’ town often targeted.
By ‘orcs’ strikes.
“I don’t know what ‘orcs’ were thinking.
Doing that.
The environment will suffer.
And it will be hard for all of us.”
said 56-year-old.
Taking a brief break.
From loading bales of straw.
Onto a trailer.
With a group of relatives and neighbours.
In field outside town.
“The main thing is that.
The ‘Ring’ doesn’t explode.”
“But we’ll survive all this.
We have nowhere else to go.
So we don’t have a choice.”
He added with a grin.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Living without water in a town devastated by dam breach” by Andrew Harding on 24 June 2023, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Derkach, a story of Iuliia and Nina, and a story of Ivan.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Living without water in a town devastated by dam breach – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem with another poem together also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
