Pripyat River

Pripyat River
Origin	Ukraine
Mouth	Dnieper
Basin countries	Ukraine, Belarus
Length	710 km (440 mi)
Source elevation
Avg. discharge
Basin area

The Pripyat River or Prypiat River (Ukrainian: Прип’ять, pronounced [ˈprɪpjɑtʲ]; Belarusian: Прыпяць, Prypiać, [ˈprɨpʲatsʲ]; Polish: Prypeć, [ˈprɨpɛtɕ]; Russian: Припять, [ˈprʲipʲɪtʲ]) is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately 710 km (440 mi) long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper.

The Pripyat passes through the Zone of alienation around the Chernobyl reactor, site of the nuclear disaster. It is polluted with radionuclides. The concentration of caesium-137 in river sediments continues to increase.^{[citation needed]} The city of Prypiat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.

Pripyat River at Mazyr, Belarus

Name etymology

Map displaying the passage of the river through southern Belarus through the cities of Mazyr, Pinsk and Brest.

At least three etymologies have been proposed for the name:-

• In Slavic languages, the component "pri" means "near", and the component "pyat" means "5". This river has a confluence with five other rivers.^{[citation needed]}

• It might derive from the local word pripech used for a river with sandy banks.^[1]
• From a Western-Baltic name Preipente "the river at (till) the spurs"^{[citation needed]}, the Pripyat river being very shallow in the area inhabited by Western Balts.

Tributaries

• Horyn River (659 km; 22,700 km²)
  • Sluch (451 km; 13,800 km²)

See also

• Pripyat Marshes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Prypyat River

• Pripyat: Radioactive pollution, 2003

Books

• (in Russian, English and Polish) Ye.N.Meshechko, A.A.Gorbatsky (2005) Belarusian Polesye: Tourist Transeuropean Water Mains, Minsk, Four Quarters,
• (in Belorussian, Russian and English) T.A.Khvagina (2005) POLESYE from the Bug to the Ubort, Minsk Vysheysha shkola, ISBN 985-06-1153-7.

v t e Dnieper River Tributaries1 Drut Berezina Sozh Pripyat Teteriv Irpin Desna Stuhna Trubizh Ros Tiasmyn Supiy Sula Pslo Vorskla Samara Konka Bilozerka Bazavluk Inhulets Zolotonoshka River Reservoirs Dnieper Dniprodzerzhynsk Kakhovka Kaniv Kiev Kremenchuk Hydroelectric stations Dnieper Dniprodzerzhynsk Kakhovka Kaniv Kiev Kremenchuk 1 Italics indicate left tributaries

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