The Kyiv Cistern ( uk, Київське водосховище, translit=Kyyivs’ke vodoskhovyshche), locally the Kyiv Sea, is a large

water reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

located on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Named after the city of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, which lies to the south, it covers an area of within the

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast ( uk, Ки́ївська о́бласть, translit=Kyïvska oblast), also called Kyivshchyna ( uk, Ки́ївщина), is an oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, w ...

. The reservoir filled in 1964–1966 after the dam for the

Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant Kyiv Hydroelectric Station is a run-of-river power plant on the Dnieper River in Vyshhorod, Ukraine. The long dam creates the Kyiv Reservoir with the purpose of hydroelectric power generation and navigability with the dam's associated lock. The ...

was built at

Vyshhorod Vyshhorod ( uk, Ви́шгород) is a city in Kyiv Oblast (region) in central Ukraine, situated immediately north of Kyiv city, the national capital, and part of the Kyiv metropolitan area. It is on the right (western) bank of the Dnieper r ...

. The reservoir is mainly used for

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

generation, industrial and public consumption, and irrigation. The reservoir is 110 km in length, 12 km in width, has a depth of four to eight meters, a volume of , and a usable volume of . The reservoir, together with the

Kakhovka Reservoir The Kakhovka Reservoir (, ''Kakhovs′ke vodoskhovyshche'') is a water reservoir on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It was created in 1956, when the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was built. It is one of several reservoirs in the Dnieper reserv ...

, the

Dnieper Reservoir The Dnieper Reservoir ( uk, Дніпровське водосховище, ) is a water reservoir on the Dnieper river in Ukraine that was created by construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station at Zaporizhzhia in 1932. The filling of the re ...

, the

Kamianske Reservoir The Kamianske Reservoir (, ) is a water reservoir located on the lower part of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. Named after the name of the city of Kamianske, it covers a total area of 567 square kilometres within the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It was ...

, the

Kremenchuk Reservoir The Kremenchuk Reservoir ( uk, Кременчуцьке водосховище, ) is the largest water reservoir located on the Dnieper River. Named for the city of Kremenchuk, it covers a total area of 2,250 square kilometres in the territories ...

, and the

Kaniv Reservoir The Kaniv Reservoir ( uk, Канівське водосховище, ) is a water reservoir located on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. Named after the city of Kaniv, it covers a total area of 675 square kilometers within the Cherkasy and Kyiv Obla ...

, has created a deep-water route on the river. However, its creation has also contributed to significant environmental problems such as the diminished flow velocity which reduces water oxygenation, and has a negative result on the balance of aquatic life forms. Also, some nearby villages were flooded when it filled. One of these was Teremtsi, where the residents of the village persuaded

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

authorities to let them stay, only to be evacuated later in 1986 during the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

Safety issues

Like all Dnieper reservoirs, Kyiv Reservoir poses potential threat of tremendous

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

if its

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

is destroyed. Moreover, it contains additional major threat – after the

Chernobyl nuclear disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nucl ...

in 1986,

radionuclides A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...

washed away by rains badly contaminated the bottom

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

of the reservoir. During the years following the disaster, there were suggestions to drain the reservoir because it was too shallow. It appeared that, if done, this might have created the threat of

radioactive dust Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

travelling by wind, possibly affecting Europe. A similar threat was permanently discussed regarding the potential destruction of the dam (by natural accident, terrorism or war). But the authorities continued to dismiss such dangers as unreal, claiming to be in full control of the dam's safety. However, serious concerns were raised in 2005, when a fake

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

alert was made. Worries about possible destruction arose again in February 2022 during the Kyiv offensive. Russian forces took control of the power plant on 25 or 26 February. Ukrainian forces recaptured it on 26 February. It was claimed that Ukrainian air defenses intercepted a missile flying towards the dam.

Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informatio ...

stated that if the dam were to fail, flooding could destroy "the entire left bank of Kyiv".

Gallery

Spring Ice Breakup on Dnieper River, Ukraine.jpg, The reservoir's surface is a combination of

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

-covered and ice-free areas in this springtime image. Kiev Reservoir Girl Sails Optimist Dinghy.jpg, Kiev Reservoir.jpg, DSC06393-Дніпро у Вишгороді.JPG, 17-07-03-Ки́ївське водосхо́вище RR74568.jpg,

References

External links

*
“Аргументы и факты” о реальных угрозах дамбы Киевского водохранилища и ГЭС

“Известия” о проблематике плотины Киевского водохранилища и ГЭС

{{Dnieper Reservoirs of the Dnieper Geography of Kyiv Reservoirs built in the Soviet Union Reservoirs in Ukraine Geography of Kyiv Oblast

Safety issues

Gallery

See also

References

External links