In a great portion of Russian territory, fires triggered by a record heat wave and drought are burning out of control. Entire villages have burned to the ground and also the death toll was 48 as of Aug. 6. A thick blanket of smoke suffocated Moscow residents and 4,000 individuals are burnt out of their homes. In certain areas, nuclear contamination from the Chernobyl disaster locked up within the trees could possibly be re-released by the fires. The Russian government has come under rare public criticism for being slow and ill-equipped to fight the fires.
Add fires to the heat wave and drought ravaging Russia
More than 1.6 million acres in Russia have burned since the fires began, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. More than 155,000 personnel have been mobilized to fight the fires. The Wall Street Journal reported that even as 293 fires were put out, more than 400 new fires ignited. Across Russia as of Aug. 6, at least 520 fires were burning. The record Russian heat wave that started the fires-as well as the Russia’s worst drought in at least 3 decades-shows no sign of letting up. Searing heat will continue, with some parts of the country reaching up to 107 degrees, until at least Aug. 12.
Public feels burned by Russian government
Public anger reached the boiling point as the Russian government struggled to get the fires under control. The latest disaster has underscored the inability of the government to protect Russians from such calamities, according to the Financial Times. Besides a trillion-dollar plus economy driven by energy resources, Russians still chafe under incompetent public officials, poor safety preparation and a deteriorating infrastructure. Nikolay Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre told the Times that the death toll is much higher in Russia than in other nations where such fires occur as the system is “absolutely dysfunctional”. Petrov said communication was far too slow in the “super-centralized” political system put in place under Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.
Radioactive smoke could drift across Europe
Concerns about nuclear contamination are being raised as Russia burns. AFP reports that in certain areas of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, radioactive cesium 137 left over from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster remains within the forests. Philippe Renaud, head of the environmental radiation laboratory at France’s IRSN nuclear safety institute, said If trees in those areas burn, the Russian nuclear contamination would be released into the air where it could possibly be breathed in by people as far away as France.
Additional reading
wsj.com
ft.com
google.com/hostednews/afp/article
No comments:
Post a Comment