Belarus lauded for post Chernobyl recovery efforts

MINSK, 26 April (BelTA) – Efforts to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl NPP accident is enormous efforts carried out by our state, Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Vladimir Pertsov told the media. He took part in a flower ceremony at the Chernobyl Victims and Hiroshima Peace Stone memorial signs in the Park of Peoples’ Friendship in Minsk on 26 April, International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day, BelTA has learned.

 

“On this mournful date we recall the losses that our country has suffered, the consequences that the country still feels from the accident which happened outside Belarus - the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic at that time. As you know, it was our country that suffered the greatest damage and the biggest losses. After all, about 20% of cultivated areas, about a quarter of forest lands, almost 2 million people from 3,500 settlements suffered from the invisible terrible threat, which radiation carried,” Vladimir Pertsov said. “Our country is successfully overcoming these consequences, allocating 3% of the state budget for this purpose every year.”

This is a big sum, the deputy head of the Belarus President Administration emphasized. “After all, according to rather modest estimates, more than $19 billion has already been spent to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Here, we should probably consider the rehabilitation of lands of the southern parts of the country, the fertile lands of Gomel, Brest and Mogilev regions. We should also consider social assistance to people who suffered from this accident, medical rehabilitation, treatment, recovery and payments, assistance to people who now live in these territories,” he said.

“This is not just memory. This is a tremendous job that is carried out in our state, and the head of state pays close attention to it,” Vladimir Pertsov added. “I approached the Chernobyl liquidators before the ceremony. They expressed their gratitude to the president for the attention and assistance they get. Unfortunately, their number is becoming fewer every year. This serious disaster, though invisible, has been taking the lives of truly heroic people.”