International cooperation and coordination of activities to rehabilitate the population, ecology and economic development of Semipalatinsk region

It is in this context that international cooperation and coordination took important steps forward in 1997 and 1998. At the last session of the United Nations General Assembly in December 1997, a Resolution was submitted with nearly 50 co-sponsors and adopted unanimously which called for an assessment to be conducted of the humanitarian effects of the nuclear testing in the Semipalatinsk region. It requested the United nations Secretary General, U N organizations and agencies, with the support of the international community, to collaborate in carrying out this assessment and to report back to the General Assembly at its next regular session which shall begin later this month in New York. This was a remarkable turning point in the global awareness about Semipalatinsk. The resolution also implicitly drew attention to the fact that Kazakstan and its populations, as victims of an extraordinary chapter of the nuclear era, should have the knowledge and the benefits that might come from an appropriate assessment of the consequences and the needs resulting from 40 years of nuclear testing, as well as the rise and fall of the Polygon. The total package of priority needs includes some $43.2 million dollars of projects: $33.7 are deemed to be relatively highest priority, but many could be effectively implemented in phases or stages and would still make a most significant contribution and impact. The breakdown is - health diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation - $24 million; - urgent humanitarian needs - $3.3 million; - ecological stabilization and environmental protection - $7.8 million; - economic rehabilitation - $6.6 million; - information dissemination - $1.3 million