Overcoming Challenges Makes Us Stronger
In my opinion, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster was the second significant existential challenge for Belarus in the 20th century after the Great Patriotic War. Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic took the main attack of the nuclear fallout upon itself. To one degree or another, the disaster affected the whole territory of the country. Gomel, Mogilev and Brest regions suffered the most. The whole economic damage, according to the experts’ estimations, consisted of 32 republican budgets in 1985.
3678 settlements came under the zone of radioactive contamination. The total number of residents of these territories was 2.2 million people. 479 settlements ceased to exist after the disaster — they were liquidated due to the impossibility of safe living. The area of the exclusion zone, from which the residents were compulsory relocated, is 1.7 thousand square kilometres. More than 137 thousand people became coerced relocatees, another 200 thousand moved to the safer regions on their own.
The importance of the migration processes is supported by the changes in the administrative structure. In 1989, previously eliminated Drybin district of Mogilev region was restored. In 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian SSR declared the republican territory a zone of the ecological disaster. This status had particular legal and economic consequences: it obliged the state to give first-priority attention to funding the safety measures and to social support of the affected population.
Undoubtedly, in the beginning, the immediate task for the state was rescuing the people and mitigation of the direct nuclear threat. Part of the Gomel region appeared in the 30 kilometres of the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl NPP, along with that the system of the radiation monitoring and radiation dose control was created. Also, it is necessary to admit the contribution of citizens personally participating in remedial action caused by the reactor and in close proximity to it: of military staff, firefighters, researchers. Almost 2.5 thousand energetic specialists ensured the uninterrupted work of energy system preventing the development of cascade faults.
The special attention of the Belarusian president is paid to the revival of the affected territories. Aleksandr Lukashenko from the first years of governing the country set the task not only to repair the damage, but to bring these lands back to proper life. The state programs, six of which were implemented, became the main instrument of the state policy directed on the remedial actions after the Chernobyl disaster. This confirms the continuation of the state policy: each following program was based on the results of the previous one, was created considering the radiation environmental changes, necessity of revival and stimulation of economic development of the affected territories, social protection of the population.
Due to the state support, the economic complex of the affected territories was able to adapt, and the facilities moved to safe production technologies. Especially in regard to the agricultural field, where the systems of animal feeding using clean pastures and special supplements were introduced, which allowed to receive safe production.
The development of the social sphere remains a top priority of the state policy. During the years of independence, there were sports and recreation centres with pools built, schools repaired the material and technical base of the healthcare facilities significantly replenished in the affected regions. Due to the initiative of the head of state, the Republican Science and Practical Centre for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology. This facility became the main scientific hub of the country for studying the remote medical consequences of the radiation exposure and developing the methods of treatment and rehabilitation.
Sanatorium and resort therapy and health improvement became an integral part of the state system of the medical rehabilitation for the population, where the priority is traditionally placed on children. This model allowed both reducing the long-term consequences of radiation exposure on health and creating the preventive mechanism for avoiding possible diseases.
Preserving the economic potential and developing the social sphere allowed to move to the stable development of the affected territories.
Like in the years of Great Patriotic War, the Belarusian people again demonstrated their main quality — the ability to rise in face of hardships. Chernobyl did not break, it became harder. Even today, when we built a new economy, developed the nuclear energy industry, manage state security, we do these with understanding: the overcoming challenge made the country and all of us extremely stronger!
Siarhej Zhuk, the analyst of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research