When Vasilly and Yelena showed up this morning they brought a newspaper account of the phosphorous spill. We had seen only a short blip on CNN and BBC. Lauren and Michael, Miami friends who adopted two wonderful kids from Ukraine after meeting Olya, emailed us and said they had read news about the phosphorus accident in the Miami Herald. They hadn’t worried because they knew we were in Kiev where it was safe. But we weren’t in Kiev and we weren’t safe.
Headline reads: We milk the cows but throw the milk away.
It turns out we were extremely close to the spill at the time of the accident. At the very time it happened we were on the highway leading into Liviv, closer than the 30 to 40 kilometers distance of Liviv to the ground zero village of Ozhydiv. Even scarier because we nearly took a route that would have taken directly into the ground zero area.
The village of Ozhydiv and more than a dozen other nearby villages were completely evacuated. But just like Chernobyl, the firefighters and humanitarian workers were sent into the area without the proper equipment or personal precautions. The firemen, not knowing better tried to douse the flames with water instead of the proper foam-absorbing chemicals. The affected area residents were told to stay in their homes with windows closed. They were told to keep all animals inside. An impossibility; they have no shelter for their horses, cows, goats, chickens, ducks or other animals. They were told to cover their wells and to not drink the water but they have no other water source. Then they were told not to eat vegetables from their gardens but they have nothing else to eat. No food or water was brought in from outside. Even more odd, they were also told to put a wet cloth on their chest because it would help protect them. Just like the residents of Chernobyl were told to use umbrellas to protect them from radiation.
The article goes on to say that the danger is even greater in a year from now when the phosphorous has leaked into all the ground water and into the wells. The region, like Chernobyl, should be evacuated and all the residents re-located. These poor village people will lose everything they own, with no financial resources to take care of the serious health problems to follow. And unlike the Soviet years when the government had provisions in their system to help survivors of such disasters, the free enterprise system now in place in Ukraine does not.
There is even speculation of sabotage in the phosphorous spill. August is the month of national elections in Ukraine and politics here are at a boiling point. The Orange Revolution has gone sour and many people are expecting turmoil and tragedy. A recent explosion in a section of the Metro also has some people suspecting sabotage as well.
One Ukrainian man said to me, “They are just practicing now for August.”
We really want to be gone before then. As Andry says, “ Git outta hee!”
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