Water supply fears as reservoirs dry out after dam blast

PLUNGING water levels at Ukraine's collapsed Kakhovka reservoir could cut off drinking supplies to more than 700,000 people, experts have warned.

- Cyril Dixon

They also say the June 6 dam blast, blamed widely on Russian sabotage, could push global food prices up by slashing Ukraine's agricultural output.

The catastrophe at one of Europe's biggest reservoirs, on the Dnipro River in the country's south, flooded more than 3,000 homes.

Before Russia invaded its neighbour last February, the water network irrigated 22,200 square miles of crop-growing land.