Kyrgyzstan

Uranium Mining in Mailuu Suu

Rosia Toktogulova

Mailuu Suu used be such a beautiful town. The surrounding mountains used to be full of wild fruit and nut trees. The grasses were so green and came all the way up to your waste. My father loved hunting and would hunt wild pigs, antelopes, porcupine and snow leopard. All of these animals have disappeared and today the mountains are bald.

People in this village have created the impact. The closing of the uranium mine had a huge impact on this village. While the mine was here, people had jobs, there was plenty of food and people were happy. After the mine closed, people had to go to the mountains to collect firewood to heat their homes and cook their meals. During the Soviet times I could just go to the supermarket and buy whatever I wanted to eat. Now it is hard to find different types of food and especially hard to find good quality food. This is due to the degraded environment around the town.

Today I live upstream of the uranium tail sites, so I am not really affected like the rest of the population. People that live near the mine tailings are especially at risk because there are many landslides. The landslides started around the 1990's and I believe that the landslides are due to the mines. In 1994 a landslide killed many people in this village, it was very sad for all of us. Some people that live near the tailings also use the land for farming. I think this is very dangerous for their health, but I'm not sure what the long term impacts will be.