A stone's throw from this village in southwest Kyrgyzstan, 23 storage pits containing radioactive uranium and chemicals risk being swept into the Maili-Suu river at any moment, the officials say.

The pits, remnants of 20 years of nuclear processing in the Soviet era, threaten a vast swathe of Central Asia's populous Fergana valley, including neighbouring countries.

"The day when the water sweeps away one of the pits, the history of Maili-Suu will end. We will all be dead and entire regions of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan will follow," said Zakhanbek Yunussapiyev, a town official organising work to secure the uranium pits.

Local officials from the emergency situations ministry acknowledge help provided by organisations such as the World Bank, which has given 10 million dollars to secure the site, but say a reconstruction project set to start at the end of this year may be too late.

"Pits number five and seven contain half of the nuclear waste stocked here. The mountain in front could slide into the river tomorrow, forming a natural dam that would flood the pits. The water would then sweep into the Fergana Valley," Rassul Mamataliyev, the official responsible for monitoring the site, said.

The area is prone to frequent landslides, flooding and earth tremors. Experts say that the greatest danger relates to six of the pits that contain a total of 1.5 million cubic metres of radioactive waste.

This spring, disaster was twice averted, but only by a whim of nature, officials say. Flood waters skirted the edge of one pit and swept away a concrete protection wall on another.

"There are only three of us covering the whole area. We can only register the damage," said Ashir Abdulayev, who has worked at the site for thirty years and now heads the local branch of the emergency situations ministry.

The site, rumoured to have provided the uranium for the first Soviet atomic bomb, has not been guarded since the fall of the Soviet Union. Townspeople and cattle now roam the area as if nothing were amiss, except that radiation levels here exceed maximum permitted levels by some 75 times.

Residents have taken advantage of the absence of guards to cart off stones and metal fencing -- radioactive but free -- to build their houses. This despite warning signs that read, "Radiation: Danger of Death."

The concrete pipes intended to keep rainwater away from the pits and the river have fallen into disrepair and now provide shelter from the sun for herds of cows.

"We think there are more instances of cancer and coronary heart disease in Maili-Suu than elsewhere. But no medical study has ever been carried out. We demand that the city be tested and analysed," said Yunussapiyev.

The inhabitants are concerned, but have lived with the risk for too long to give way to panic or mourn their fate.

"What do you want us to do? Now we hope that the work will begin. It won't save us, but at least we'll have some work," says Umurbek, a toothless 32-year-old unemployed resident.

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