While memories of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl have faded in the international community, continued assistance is still needed for the disaster-hit region, according to the head of the United Nations relief program still dealing with the tragedy.
The scars of the catastrophe still linger in every aspect of daily life in the affected area, which covers Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, said Dusan Zupka, Chernobyl Programme manager of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in an interview with The Japan Times.
A 155,000-sq.-km area, home to 7.1 million people, was contaminated with hazardous levels of radiation following an explosion on April 26, 1986, at a reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to the OCHA. The disaster was the world's worst nuclear accident.