Ukraine should not expect significant floods. This was stated during a briefing by Viktoriia Korniienko, head of the hydrological forecast department of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, writes UNN.
Details
This year, spring floods on most rivers of Ukraine are expected to be within or below normal. The exception is small rivers in the Kharkiv region and tributaries of the Southern Bug, where levels higher than multi-year averages are possible, Korniienko noted.
"The development of spring processes is already being recorded - an increase in water levels prevails on the rivers. Currently, no sharp changes in weather conditions are expected, but flood processes will continue," Korniienko said.
Due to active snowmelt, the water level in rivers is rising, and the state is working proactively to minimize risks, as reported by the Ministry of Economy, said Ihor Hopchak, head of the State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine. 27 pumping stations and 9 drainage wells have been engaged. Since the beginning of the year, they have pumped over 132 million cubic meters of surface and groundwater.
According to the State Emergency Service, due to snowmelt, water may overflow into floodplains in the Volyn, Lviv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kyiv regions.
Thus, on March 4-6, on the Southern Bug River and its tributaries, in the Pripyat basin and individual rivers of the Western Bug basin, as well as on the Inhul and Tilihul rivers, water levels may rise by 0.1–0.4 m. Possible overflow of water into floodplains in the Vinnytsia region and retention of water on floodplains in the Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions - danger level I (yellow). The weakening of ice phenomena, in some places - ice drift, will also continue.
Forecasters predict warm weather without precipitation in the coming days.
At the same time, the State Emergency Service has already recorded over 800 cases of flooding due to spring floods. The service's specialists responded to most of these cases, said Viktor Vitovetskyi, director of the Department of Civil Protection and Preventive Activities of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
"The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has formed and maintains in readiness units that are ready to work against floods. The units are equipped with appropriate equipment - pumps, motor pumps, and snowmobiles," he said.
He added that currently, in two regions - Odesa and Cherkasy - cases of flooding have been recorded, where the work of the State Emergency Service specialists is still ongoing.