[Raptor235]

In sharp contrast to the world’s cleanest cities—which are celebrated for their current state of living as well as their future plans for public transport, waste disposal and community infrastructure—the majority of the world’s dirtiest cities are still languishing under the sins of the past.

Forbes’ top ten list is remarkable for many reasons. The first is that most of the dirtiest cities of the world are placed in developing or struggling nations such as Africa and Russia. The second is that many of the named cities are still labouring to rid themselves of environmental disasters incurred by Western interests or corporate factions in the name of the almighty dollar. The third is that the bulk of the world’s dirtiest cities just keep getting dirtier due to less than strategic plans for waste management, pollutant reduction and industrial regulations. Though residents of cleaner cities in the world may not realize it, the dirtiest cities affect everyone in the world by contributing to global warming, ozone deficiency and overall environmental health. In a global community, it is up to the fortunate to help those with less—whether it be food, money or clean living conditions.

The number one city on the list is the infamous Chernobyl, Ukraine, which was awarded the dubious honour for the seething radiation that still pervades the city’s soil after the nuclear reactor accident over 20 years ago. There is no limit to the laundry list of of Chernobyl’s pollutants: uranium, plutonium, radioactive iodine, cesium-137, strontium and other heavy or radioactive metals are still found in astromical levels in the 19-mile exclusion zone that has been cordoned off since the reactor went off. The amount of radiation leaked was 100 times the levels released in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Chernobyl's 135,000 citizens have been evacuated and relocated to an area outside of the reactor zone, which is far from clean by Western standards. Chernobyl has been on the top of the list of dirty cities since the accident and the pervasion of pollutants seems to indicate that it will remain there for years, if not decades, to come. You can find the entire article here http://aboutmyplanet.com/environment/dirtiest-cities

[horselover]

I heard that China was really bad for dirty cities. Given the high populations, I'm not surprised.

[peachy]

I think where it's a 3rd world country, you're going to get more pollution. People are just wanting to survive. They don't care about certain things. They really are trying to make it to the end of the week, if not, day.

[tater03]

I have read alot about Chernobyl over the years and I can see why it is the worst on the list. The problem is where they move they relocated the people is not all that much better from my understanding.
I agree with the above poster on the fact that people that live in these places are not thinking about long term effects and couldn't even if they wanted to because they are just trying to make it day to day.
You're right that some places are just not going to be able to do things without the help of more developed countries.