Long term management and rehabilitation of contaminated areas: where are we?

Full text: The rehabilitation issue emerged progressively during the years following the Chernobyl accident when it became more and more evident that the countermeasures adopted after the emergency phase of the accident were insufficient to restore decent living conditions in the future and that specific strategies should be elaborated to address the challenges of long term contaminated territories. This led the governments of the most affected CIS countries to elaborate and adapt ambitious national laws in the early nineties in an attempt to organize the social and economic conditions of the population residing in these territories. Fundamentally structured around radiation protection considerations and compensation schemes for the different categories of victims the adopted strategies did not drastically change the situation: a persistent concern of the population about the health consequences of the remaining contamination and a continuous degradation of the economic situation undermining all the efforts to restore decent living conditions. In parallel, and certainly stimulated by this experience, a series of cases related to the management of contaminated sites or areas resulting from past events and activities, were discussed all over the world and it soon appeared that, beyond the diversity of the contexts, common similarities with the difficulties encountered in the CIS countries were calling for the development of new strategies and guidance for the long term rehabilitation of contaminated territories. The international experience brought to evidence that a long lasting contamination, even if the associated levels of exposure for the population are low in term of risk according the current knowledge, is not only a permanent concern for the population concerning its state of health but a serious handicap for the socio-economic development of the territories affected and the quality of daily life that encumbered future perspectives for the population still living in theses territories. This rather pessimist picture must however not put aside the large set of successful actions and instruments that have been implemented in the contaminated territories of the CIS and elsewhere in the world and which resulted in many cases in a significant reduction of the radiological burden for the population. These actions and instruments have been well identified and have without doubt a generic value for any rehabilitation programme. However, as far as the CIS experience is concerned, one has to take into account that they have been implemented in a rural context confronted to severe economic constraints and often out of date administrative structures. There is an obvious need to adapt the CIS experience to respond to the Western context which is more urban and market oriented and with a legal framework and administrative structures facing a growing demand in terms of public participation and new governance principle. However, building on the lessons (positive and negative) of a decade of routine management but also original experiences aiming at overcoming some of the identified difficulties, a new orientation in the rehabilitation policy has come into view over the very recent years in the CIS countries for reversing the social and economic decline that is affecting the contaminated territories. It is now recognized that decentralised approaches based an the involvement of all stakeholders including the local professionals and the population directly affected is a key feature of long term rehabilitation programmes. Shifting from a centralised, top-down, prescriptive and normative approach to a more decentralised, bottom-up and quality driven approach is not straightforward. In particular, there is a need to combine rehabilitation with sustainable development and to adopt an integrated approach dealing with health, economic and social development, environment, education and culture at the same time. Another important dimension is the need to reconsider the role of international co-operation in case of long term contamination of large territories. Apart from scenarios with very localised consequences, it is important to keep in mind that most nuclear and radiological accidents may have large consequences in space and in time with inevitable international aspects. This also calls for a re-evaluation about the respective role of local, national and international actors. This paper presents first the various steps in the development of strategies for the long term rehabilitation and management of contaminated sites and territories. It then describes in more details the main lessons that can be drawn from recent experiences in the CIS and discusses the challenges for the future. (author)