Health Care :: Time to move ahead – Ban on Chernobyl disaster

Remembering the victims of the world’s worst nuclear power reactor accident in Chernobyl, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said while the pain caused by it should never be forgotten, it was imperative to move forward.

“While paying respect to the past, we need to take stock of the present and look ahead to the future,” he said in a statement on the occasion of 21st anniversary of the disaster which displaced 330,000 people, caused cancer to over 5,000 children and left million traumatised.

Given that science points to the possibility of a return to normal life for people living in regions affected by the disaster, Ban called for sustainable social and economic development, the creation of new jobs, an influx of investment and the reinstatement of a sense of self-sufficiency.

“The communities affected by Chernobyl have shown great resilience in coping with a disaster of tremendous magnitude,” he noted, urging the “international community to do its part in helping them to bring a region so rich in history and potential fully back to life”.

Ban paid tribute to the hundreds of emergency workers who risked their lives to respond to the accident and the thousands who worked to build a shelter around the damaged reactor.

In 1986, explosions destroyed Chernobyl’s Unit 4 reactor core, sending a cloud of radionuclides over parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

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