Ministry of Emergencies and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus hold international videoconference "Chernobyl Accident: 35 Years On"

20 апреля 2021

Less than a week is left before the 35th anniversary of the major man-made disaster in history - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Many European countries were affected by the aftermath of the accident, but Belarus suffered most of all. Today,  representatives of the Ministry of Emergencies and Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly with their counterparts from Russia, Ukraine, the CIS Standing Committee, and the UN agencies held an international videoconference "Chernobyl Accident: 35 Years On". The meeting was aimed at harmonizing activities for mitigating the aftermath of the accident as well as at sharing experience in developing the affected territories, because they still need special attention and people need support, the participants stressed, noting that Belarus has done a great job to date. 

Sergei Shparlo, Head of Department for Mitigation of the Aftermath of Chernobyl Accident at the Ministry of Emergencies of Belarus: More than $19 billion was spent from 1990 to 2020 on the rehabilitation of the Chernobyl land. The program is socially oriented. More than 60% went for social programs, such as recreation and health improvement, medical care, benefits, compensations. Over these years we have built 69,000 apartments and family homes, 157 schools, health care facilities, kindergartens and so on. About 3 billion rubles will be allocated for the implementation of the state program for mitigation the aftermath of the disaster for the current five years. There is a new section in the program: development of health resort treatment and recreation for children.