Radionuclides are leaking from the sarcophagus into the water table and the River Dnieper, and via the Dnieper into the Black Sea. At least 375,000 people had to leave their homes in the immediate aftermath of the accident. Many from the outlying affected areas, where the contamination levels have dropped, have since gone back. However, those who lived within a 30-kilometer radius of Chernobyl will never be able to return home. The salinity of the remaining, rapidly diminishing sea has quadrupled.
Fish stocks are virtually extinct in the sea itself and drastically reduced in the river deltas.
Major fishing towns now find themselves as much as 100 kilometers from the coast. The Aral Sea and much of the surrounding area are also affected by chronic pollution caused by the cotton-crop fertilizers, pesticides and industrial waste which seep into the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Large swathes of once-productive farmland lie fallow. An estimated 2.5 million to 3 million people live in the worst affected areas of Kazakstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Major health problems have been reported, including a steep increase in infant mortality.