The Pripyat or Prypiat is a river in Eastern Europe. The river, which is approximately long, flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and into Ukraine again, before draining into the Dnieper at Kyiv Reservoir.

Name etymology

Max Vasmer notes in his etymological dictionary that the historical name of the river mentioned in the earliest East Slavic document, the Primary Chronicle, is Pripet (), and cites the opinion of other linguists that the name meant "tributary", comparing with Greek and Latin roots. He also rejects some opinions which were improperly based on the stem -pjat, rather than original .

The name may also derive from the local word pripech used for a river with sandy banks.

Geography

The Pripyat begins in the Volhynian Upland, between the villages of and in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. 204 km downstream, it crosses the border of Belarus, where it travels 500 km through Polesia, Europe's largest wilderness, within which lie the vast sandy wetlands known as the Pripet Marshes, a dense network of swamps, bogs, rivers and rivulets within a forested basin. For the last 50 kilometers the Pripyat flows again in Ukraine and flows several kilometers south of Chernobyl into the Kyiv Reservoir.

The length of the river is 775&nbsp;km, and the area of the watershed is 114,300&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>. The width of the floodplain varies from 4 to 15 km over the course of the river, with occasional flooding reaching 30&nbsp;km. of the whole river length lies within Belarus, with the rest in Ukraine.

The Pripyat is known for its numerous oxbow lakes and channels.

Dredging for E40 waterway

Dredging of the river started in 2020 to enable the E40 waterway to pass through the area. The dredging raised concerns about radioactive contamination around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as the river comes within of the nuclear reactor.

See also

  • Dnieper–Bug Canal

Notes

thumb|400px|right|A map of the Pripyat

thumb|The Pripyat at [[Mazyr, Belarus]]

References

  • Припять, Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  • Pripyat // Dictionary of Contemporary Geographical Names / Rus. geogr. oh Moscow center; By common. Ed. acad. V. M. Kotlyakova. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factorium, 2006.
  • Joint River Management Program. Final Report: River Pripyat Basin (February 2004)

Bibliography

  • (in Russian, English and Polish) Ye.N.Meshechko, A.A.Gorbatsky (2005) Belarusian Polesye: Tourist Transeuropean Water Mains, Minsk, Four Quarters,
  • (in Belarusian, Russian and English) T.A.Khvagina (2005) POLESYE from the Bug to the Ubort, Minsk Vysheysha shkola, .
  • Pripyat: Radioactive pollution, 2003