Must be tough working in Kazakhstan...... pretty wild over there.
Tuesday December 15 12:17 PM ET
UN Urges Help For Kazakh Nuclear Site
ALMATY (Reuters) - More than 500 explosions linked to nuclear testing have left Kazakhstan needing international help to cope with destroyed agricultural land and ecozystems and increased cases of cancer, a U.N. report said Tuesday.
Calling for help to clean up an area used for decades of nuclear testing, the report said: ''The explosion of over 500 devices within the polygon profoundly damaged the communities in the Semipalatinsk region, which even today face a complicated web of hardship.''
A joint United Nations-Kazakh mission visited the remote region for two weeks in June to assess the impact of the tests on the area in and around its military site.
The mission found that agricultural land and ecozystems had been destroyed, with many sites remaining contaminated with radioactive elements.
Those areas still represented a risk to people.
Cases of cancer had risen in the region and circulatory, digestive and respiratory diseases had put a huge strain on the region's already under-equipped medical services, said the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
Semipalatinsk, long isolated from the outside world during and after the Cold War, depended heavily on the military for its wellbeing.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and abrupt closure of the testing ground wreaked havoc with the local economy.
The U.N. report urged Kazakhstan not to ignore the crippled region, adding that local small and medium-sized businesses could be aided by greater access to loan facilities.
In the short-term, food and medical supplies were urgently needed, it said.
The Semipalatinsk region is one of several in Central Asia still bearing the scars of rapid Soviet military and economic expansion.
Moscow, by ordering the monoculture of cotton production in Uzbekistan, caused the Aral Sea to shrink over the last 30 years, triggering deep social and environmental hardship in adjacent regions. |
