District profile

The total area of the Slavgorod District of the Mogilev Region is 132,002 ha. All district area has contamination levels over 1 Ci/km2 (Figure 1). As of 1 January, 2003, 83.5% of agricultural land has radionuclide contamination over 1 Ci/km2. During the post-accident period, 24,556 ha of agricultural land have been taken out of agricultural use.

Figure 1. ¹³⁷Cs soil contamination map of the Slavgorod District

As of 1 January, 1986, the population of the Slavgorod District constituted about 24,000, including 16,417 (or 68.4 %) of rural and 7,600 (or 31.6%) of urban portions. Due to the Chernobyl NPP accident, the population was relocated from 24 communities (7,500 people); 15 former settlements were evacuated and the houses buried. Over the post-accident period, the population of the district has decreased by 29.4%. As of 1 January, 2003, the population was about 17,000, including 8,653 (or 51%) of rural and 8,300 (or 49%) of urban portions. People live in 81 communities, of which 80 are rural. Thus, the bulk of the population of the Slavgorod District are rural residents. Figure 2 shows numbers within the three key categories of rural population (working-age persons, pensioners and children under 15) for the period of 1986 - 2003.

Figure 2. Categories of rural population in the Slavgorod District

Among rural population, the working-age population is 31 %, children - 23.8%, pensioners - 34.5% (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The proportion of different population groups in the Slavgorod District in 2003, %

Figure 4 shows distribution of the affected areas, communities and population of the Slavgorod District according to contamination zones. 57% of land in the Slavgorod District is within the contamination range of 5-15 Ci/km2, where 65 communities house 94% of the district population.

Figure 4. Distribution of areas, communities and population of the Slavgorod District according to radioactive contamination zones for 2004.

All Rights Reserved, CORE, 2004