The implementation of the project ‘Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contamination’ at Danang Airport was reviewed at a seminar in the central coastal city of Da Nang on August 8.

The project, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence, aims to enhance capacity building for Vietnam in treating dioxin and hardly-disintegrated organic pollutants at the contaminated airport.

The project commenced in 2011 with the clearance of mines and other unexploded ordnances (UXO’s) and is expected to run through until 2015 with decontamination works involving excavation, transport and placement of around 67,000 cu.m of dioxin-contaminated sediment and soil into the in-pile thermal desorption (IPTD) treatment structure, and restoration of the environment at project sites.

The project will create a 29 ha of clean land once completed in 2015. It will be the premise for the Vietnamese and US Governments to decontaminate AO/dioxin present in other hotspots in the country, including the Bien Hoa Airport in the southeastern province of Dong Nai and Phu Cat airport in the central province of Binh Dinh.-VNA