A quarter century after the world’s worst nuclear accident in Chornobyl, big questions remain about how to support and rejuvenate communities in the areas most affected by the disaster. After the accident, the territories contaminated with radiation were divided into zones.
Zone one is the “alienation” zone with a 30-kilometer radius around the destroyed reactor, which is uninhabitable, as are most settlements in zone two.
The level of radiation in the affected areas has changed and most settlements that were classified as zones three and four is acceptable, and these lands have a special status that on one hand gives its residents some privileges and subsidized healthcare, on the other hand it restricts economic development.
There are around 2.5 million people living in these areas, concentrated in the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Rivne and Chernihiv, Vinnytsia and Volyn Oblasts. These regions are afflicted by high levels of unemployment and dependency on benefits.
The United Nations Development Program supports the revitalization of these areas. “Both UNDP and the government of Ukraine think that people who live in those areas can get back to normal life,” said Olivier Adam, UNDP’s representative in Ukraine.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during his recent visit to Kyiv emphasized the importance of overcoming perceptions that the affected region in the three countries “is poisoned forever” and to instead start a “new chapter, with new understanding.”
“Science has shown that normal life is fully possible for most people living in area affected by the Chernobyl disaster,” he said. “What these areas need most is recovery and development: new jobs, fresh investment, the restoration of a sense of community.” This would require the reviewing of special status for these zones according to the current levels of contamination – a controversial move given that their current designation brings with it certain benefits to the people who live there and the local authorities.
Another obstacle is technical – there wasn’t any official radiation level check over the last two years, so it’s not possible to tell which places are clean enough to take it out of zone. Ivan Fostenko, a six-year-old native of Borodyanka town in zone four, goes to elementary school and spends afternoons at the local center for social and psychological rehabilitation, where he can play with other kids or take part in health-improving activities.
Ivan is eligible for subsidized treatment at health resorts in Ukraine and in two years when he turns eight he will have the chance to spend a month or two with a host family in the United States at the expense of an international charity. Fostenko’s family of three is also eligible for a free medical check once a year and also they get a subsidy Hr 5.20 (75 cents) per person per month.
Natalia Fostenko, Ivan’s mother, is against the idea of eliminating the zone’s special status. “No, I think it’s too early to cancel it,” she said. “If they take our benefits away the life here will get much worse.”
City officials at Borodyanka back the position of their residents and say that zones should not be eliminated overnight without an action plan describing what benefits will be taken away and what would remain.
Serhiy Kolosovsky, deputy head of Borodyanka district administration says that elimination of social benefits won’t make people healthier or happier, and businesses already usually disregard radiation if there is a possibility to get profit.
“There are some restrictions for agriculture production here, but if you want to open a store or a repair shop or anything else – you are very welcome!” Kolosovsky said.
Some officials think differently. Volodymyr Vyhivsky, the first deputy mayor of Korosten, a town in Zhytormyr Oblast in zone three thinks that businesses are scared off by the any association with Chernobyl.
“Once a group of investors wanted to set up a ceramics plant here,” he said. “And then they just got scared that their production would be associated with radiation and built the plant in another town.”
Vyhivsky says the town will benefit if the zone status is lifted, but some social programs should be preserved. The low subsidies, varying from Hr 2 to Hr 10 per month, could be accumulated and spent wisely on the community needs.
“Some additional Hr 2 or Hr 5 per month won’t really affect your budget,” Vyhivsky said. “But if you put it all together there will be a big chunk of money and we can spend it on new hospitals, schools, road infrastructure so everybody would benefit from it.”
A similar idea to cancel subsidies and spend the released money on community needs was put into a draft law by the Cabinet of Ministers that is waiting to be debated in parliament.
The draft law contains several paragraphs that suggest canceling numerous subsidies (including the Chornobyl ones) and letting the Cabinet of Ministers to use this money at their discretion.
The state budget for 2011 allocates Hr 2.6 billion for Chornobyl social programs.
People who live in zones three and four do not think that the government would spend this money on community projects and prefer to have their several hryvnas a month rather than nothing. Volodymyr Yakymchuk, a leading member of the union Chornobyl nongovernmental organization, wants the draft law pulled.
“It’s going to be a catastrophe for us,” he said. “If the Cabinet of Ministers gets this money at its disposal we won’t see a penny.”
While Ukrainian officials are thinking what to do with zones and subsidies, neighboring Belarus, which was also hit hard by the accident, has solved this dilemma. In early 2000s the government cancelled a number of individual subsidies and spent the money on supplying radiation affected villages with natural gas and clean water, building new hospitals and transport infrastructure. Liudmyla Lysiuk, an official at Homel district executive committee said that this step didn’t cause any social uprising.
“Of course some people were not happy,” said Lysiuk. “But people soon realized that they benefited from that as they got better healthcare facilities, clean water and roads.” Lysiuk admits that the money released from cancellation of subsidies could have been misused, but this didn’t happen due to the power of autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko.
A couple years ago the Ministry of Finance didn’t send the “Chornobyl” money to Homel Oblast, she explained, but the regional governor talked to president Lukashenko and the problem was solved the next day.
“Some people say it looks like abuse of power,” Lysiuk said. “But in that situation it was kind of useful.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olesia Oleshko can be reached at [email protected].
