Society

Thua Thien-Hue tries to revive UXO contaminated land

The central province of Thue Thien-Hue has been working hard to disarm tens of thousands of bombs and mines left underground by the war so as to give safe land back to its locals.
The central province ofThue Thien-Hue has been working hard to disarm tens of thousands ofbombs and mines left underground by the war so as to give safe land backto its locals.

The province has more than 172,400 hectaresof land contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO), or 34.4 percent ofits total area - one of the highest levels in Vietnam. The worstaffected districts are A Luoi (65,000 ha), Phong Dien (39,000 ha), NamDong (18,000 ha) and Huong Tra (13,000 ha).

Lieutenant ColonelTran Tuan Anh, head of the board of sappers under the Thua Thien-HueMilitary High Command, said in the past 10 years, the province hascleared over 14,900 ha of land of some 16,000 pieces of UXO.

Thereclaimed land has helped local residents settle their lives and ensureground for building socio-economic facilities, he noted.

Manyinternational organisations offered assistance totalling 10 million USDto the province in the work, such as the German ministries for ForeignAffairs and Economic Cooperation and Development, the Australian Agencyfor International Development, Australian Volunteers International, andthe Mines Advisory Group from the UK.

Anh said to minimise risks,Thua Thien-Hue is pushing forward the popularisation of the issue tolocal people and boosting its cooperation with foreign agencies todisarm UXO.

The US used over 15 million tonnes of bombs and shells during its war in Vietnam.

Accordingto the Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under theEngineering Command, up to 7,645 of the 8,686 communes in the country’s63 provinces are polluted with UXO. The amount of explosive materials isestimated at 800,000 tonnes, mostly in the central region.

DeputyDirector of the centre Nguyen Anh Tuan said 6.6 million ha of land, or20.12 percent of Vietnam’s area, is contaminated with UXO which haskilled and injured more than 100,000 people in the past four decades.
It is estimated that for every 16 USD it cost to produce a mine, Vietnam will have to spend 800 USD to disarm it.

Therefore,to remove hundreds of thousands of UXO units, the country needs hugefinancial and comprehensive support and help from the internationalcommunity.-VNA

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