Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Four Central Asian countries adopted Monday a joint declaration professing their desire to solve once and for all the enduring problem of uranium waste left over from the era of the Soviet Union, at a meeting in Geneva. Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, along with United Nations agencies and other international actors agreed that the waste was hazardous and dangerous to the populations. They would work together to gather and store the waste and clean up the affecting areas.
The four signatory countries along with Turkmenistan were or are producers of natural uranium, and the threats posed are largely transnational. Much of the waste is left over from Soviet Era weapons production during the Cold War, when the Central Asian republics were controlled by Moscow.
The five countries have a combined population of 55 million people and the waste, known as tailings, has negative impacts on health, agriculture and ecology in the affected areas and those who rely on the food supplies from the region.
While rich in natural resources, the Central Asian states have struggled since the collapse of the Soviet Union and about half of the region's population lives in poverty.
The high-level delegations to the Geneva talks asked for donors in the bigger economies to help fund the clean-up efforts.
