Vietnam Province Needs $24.35M for Bomb, Mine Clearance by 2015

Vietnam’s central province of Quang Ngai is estimated to need more than VND509 billion ($24.35 million) to carry out a wartime bombs and mines clearance project between 2010 and 2015. The project will focus on cleaning up 20,245 hectares of land in the whole province by the next five years, including roughly 5,520 hectares in 2012, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported. The project is very important to local residents and socio-economic development because it will help minimize the rate of human casualties of explosives, restore land for production and infrastructure projects, making contribution to poverty reduction in the area. It is estimated that up to 600,000 tons of landmines and UXO are scattered across Vietnam, resulting in the contamination of 6.6 millions hectares of land, statistics from the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) showed. Bombs and mines have claimed around 104,000 lives in Vietnam since 1975 and it caused deaths to additional 300 to 600 people annually, the UNDP said. Vietnam will need more than $10 billion to clear up bombs and mines in next 300 years, said a representative of the Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN). (Thanh Nien –Young People Nov 16 p2)