A top United Nations official said today that Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster almost 16 years ago, still needed international aid but was in danger of becoming a forgotten crisis.
Mr Kenzo Oshima, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was speaking after a trip to the contaminated region in and around the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, where he put forward a 10-year recovery strategy.
"The human dimension of the Chernobyl disaster has tended to be driven into a forgotten crisis despite the continuing nature of the very serious problems and hardship suffered by a large population," Mr Oshima told a news conference.
On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing a deadly cloud of radioactivity.
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia - the countries of the former Soviet Union most affected by the accident - wanted to work with UN agencies to implement self-help recovery projects, UN officials said.
"We propose to make a shift from an attitude people have where they have often been passive recipients of assistance to making them more active participants in their own life," said Mr Neil Buhne, UN Resident Co-ordinator in Minsk.
Between $50 million and $80 million would be needed to address the region's future needs, the officials said.
Mr Oshima said today’s meeting of UN agencies and donor countries was not intended to gather pledges, but he did not rule out a new appeal to rekindle the interest of international donors.
Much of the aid for Chernobyl has been used for medicines, hospital care and food for those poisoned by the radioactive cloud. But Mr Oshima said future assistance should focus on longer term economic, social and environmental problems in the region.