The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is working closely with localities to support disabled people, including dioxin victims, in accessing new treatment and reintegrating into society. KC Choe, Director of the USAID’s Environment and Social Development Office, was speaking at the second round-table of the Vietnam-US Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/dioxin, held in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai province, on April 21. She announced the first phase of a dioxin remediation project at Danang Airport will be completed this year, and the second phase will continue until 2016 to turn the airport into a dioxin free zone. She added that the agency is evaluating environmental impacts at Bien Hoa Airport to come up with appropriate remediation methods. Both Danang and Bien Hoa airports were used by the U.S. military during wartime to store defoliants, containing lethal dioxin. The toxic chemicals were then loaded on to aircraft to spray over Vietnamese land and forests. Statistics show from 1962 to 1971, more than 20 million galons of defoliant were stored at airports and U.S. military bases in Vietnam. At least 4.5 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to these toxic chemicals. Although the war ended nearly 40 ago, the destructive aftermath of war, especially unexploded ordnance and AO/dioxin chemical, still affects the lives of millions of Vietnamese people and U.S. war veterans. Ha Huy Thong, head of the group, said soon after the war ended, the Vietnamese Party and State have devised a number of policies to reduce the harmful effects of dioxin on people’s health and the environment. He added that the U.S. government has cooperated with Vietnam in dealing with the issue, for example a project to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil at Danang Airport. Delegates evaluated programs in dealing with the consequences of AO/Dioxin chemicals in Vietnam and proposed measures to tackle the issue more effectively in the future. The same day, delegates made a fact-finding tour of hotspots at Bien Hoa Airport and visited a disabled children’s centre in Bien Hoa City. (Vov.vn April 21)
