The ravaged environment of the former Soviet Union is something the West should focus on as it prepares to send Russia massive injections of aid.


Government officials here no longer try to hide facts supported by too much evidence. This is a polluted, diseased country, made dangerous to live in by unconscionable disregard for the environment during the Communist era.


The startling statistics released last week detail what many residents of this country feared. As a result of ecological abuses, only half the country's tap water is now fit to drink, according to officials. More alarming is the fact that only one in four children is considered to be in peak health when leaving school.


Forecasters say that only 15 to 20 percent of all children will be born healthy by the year 2015. and only 20 percent of Russian men would be considered eligible for military service if army recruitment offices utilized basic international health standards.


Russia's population is dying younger. Average life expectancy rates have dropped from 64 for men and 74 for women in 1991 to 63 for men and 69 for women in 1992. All in a land where tomorrow has great possibilities, but not without a healthy populace.


When the literally healthier powers in the West contemplate what kind of monetary support to give the former Soviet Union, funds should be earmarked for a mandatory starter's kit in terms of environmental overhaul. The United States, Germany and others with increasingly vested interests here should insist that aid go hand-in-hand with attention to ecology.


This is not just for the good of the men, women and children of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As more Westerners move here, they too are subjected to the effects of a mistreated environment. It is a fact of life that, in 1992, no one would move here for their health. Nobody thrives here physically, no matter how many precautions they take.


Of the crimes committed in the former Soviet Union, what has happened to the environment is rarely mentioned -- though its long-term impact might be the most pronounced.


This immense country is too important to be allowed to slide further into ruin. The environmental cleanup should start now.


In dealing with a land where 10 percent of the food is considered to be contaminated and where pollution standards are primitive, the West would be wise to insist on environmental improvements as a condition of aid. This may sound drastic, but drastic measures are needed.