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UN To Spend "Tens Of Billions" On Chernobyl Recovery Plan
Moscow (AFP) Apr 02, 2002 Tens of billions of dollars still need to be spent to cope with the impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the populations of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, a senior UN official said Monday after talks with Russian officials. Nearly six million people continue to live in areas that were significantly affected by radiation emitted after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian aid, Kenzo Oshima, told reporters. The explosion and nuclear fallout are already believed to have caused the deaths of between 15,000 and 30,000 people. With international efforts in the first 15 years after the Chernobyl meltdown focussing mainly on making the stricken reactor safe, UN agencies were now calling for a "new focus" to be embodied in a 10-year recovery plan to enable communities and individuals in the affected areas to regain control of their lives, Oshima said. Asked how much funds the international community planned to commit to the programme, the official said he had "no specific amount in mind," but that "in the initial stages, we'll probably be talking at least in terms of tens of billions" of dollars. The funding "needs to be considered along with the projects that we intend to develop in specific terms in the near future," he said. UN plans for the region were outlined in a report, "The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: A Strategy for Recovery", that was presented in Moscow in February.
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