Newsroom
OSCE campaign to focus on health hazards of old Kyrgyz uranium mines
BISHKEK 9 January 2004
BISHKEK, 9 January 2004 - A week-long public information campaign in Kyrgyzstan will try to raise awareness of the health problems posed by radioactive waste dumps at Mailuu-Suu in the south of the country, which threaten a wider region with pollution.
The campaign, called "Life Safety in Mailuu-Suu", is a joint undertaking of the OSCE Center in Bishkek, the Science-Engineering Centre "GeoPribor" and the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences. It will be carried out between 12 and 16 January 2004.
The Mailuu-Suu uranium dumps have recently emerged as a priority issue for Kyrgyzstan and also attracted attention in neighbouring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
At the local level, however, public awareness of the threat remains alarmingly low. Citizens of the Mailuu-Suu region continue to walk freely among dangerously contaminated and poorly marked sites. The people have often appropriated land on such sites to graze their livestock and used radioactive earth to craft building materials for their homes.
The citizens, especially the children of Mailuu-Suu town, are unaware of the dangers, and do not know how to live safely in a contaminated environment.
The campaign will start with the presentation to all staff of the town administration, primary and secondary schools and a medical college in Mailuu-Suu of a brochure on possible dangers from radioactive waste and guidance for prevention of health hazards.
One thousand copies of the brochure in the Kyrgyz and Russian languages will be disseminated in the area.
Background: The Mailuu-Suu uranium mines had been exploited by the Soviet authorities from 1946 to 1967. Twenty-three dumps on the territory of the former mine, containing 1.9 million m3 of radioactive waste, were conserved between 1966 and 1973 according to the standards of the time. Now they are in acute danger of being washed into and contaminating the Syr Darya river basin. They represent a serious danger not only for Kyrgyzstan, but for the whole Fergana valley, which is the agriculturally richest and most populated area of Central Asia, and most of downstream Uzbekistan until the Aral Sea.
The campaign, called "Life Safety in Mailuu-Suu", is a joint undertaking of the OSCE Center in Bishkek, the Science-Engineering Centre "GeoPribor" and the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences. It will be carried out between 12 and 16 January 2004.
The Mailuu-Suu uranium dumps have recently emerged as a priority issue for Kyrgyzstan and also attracted attention in neighbouring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
At the local level, however, public awareness of the threat remains alarmingly low. Citizens of the Mailuu-Suu region continue to walk freely among dangerously contaminated and poorly marked sites. The people have often appropriated land on such sites to graze their livestock and used radioactive earth to craft building materials for their homes.
The citizens, especially the children of Mailuu-Suu town, are unaware of the dangers, and do not know how to live safely in a contaminated environment.
The campaign will start with the presentation to all staff of the town administration, primary and secondary schools and a medical college in Mailuu-Suu of a brochure on possible dangers from radioactive waste and guidance for prevention of health hazards.
One thousand copies of the brochure in the Kyrgyz and Russian languages will be disseminated in the area.
Background: The Mailuu-Suu uranium mines had been exploited by the Soviet authorities from 1946 to 1967. Twenty-three dumps on the territory of the former mine, containing 1.9 million m3 of radioactive waste, were conserved between 1966 and 1973 according to the standards of the time. Now they are in acute danger of being washed into and contaminating the Syr Darya river basin. They represent a serious danger not only for Kyrgyzstan, but for the whole Fergana valley, which is the agriculturally richest and most populated area of Central Asia, and most of downstream Uzbekistan until the Aral Sea.