Quang Tri (VNA) – Nearly 300 explosive devices were successfully defusedin Xy commune, Huong Hoa mountainous district, the central province of QuangTri on September 25.

Right after receiving information from local residents, the province’s mobileunexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance team under Peace Trees Vietnam, incollaboration with the provincial border guard’s Thanh border station and thecommunal People’s Committee, conducted inspections at the cassava field.

The team found 75 Blu-24 bomblets and 220 warheads of various kinds. As most ofthe bomblets remained intact, posing a high risk of explosion, they weredefused at the site. Meanwhile, the authorities safely moved the warheads to awarehouse for explosive materials.

A survey in 2017 by the Ministry of NationalDefence showed that nearly 82 percent of the area of Quang Tri, a fiercebattlefield during the war, was contaminated with UXOs. Nearly 8,540 local residentshave been killed or injured by UXOs since 1975.

In Huong Hoa – a heavily UXO-polluteddistrict, more than 1,150 people have been killed or injured in UXO accidentssince 1975 – when the war ended.

In 1995, Peace Trees Vietnam was the firstinternational non-governmental organisation coming to the province to helpaddress post-war consequences through UXO clearance, and support for UXOvictims.

Since February 2019, Quang Tri has carried outa cooperation programme with RENEW (Restoring the Environment andNeutralising the Effects of the War) and the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)organisation to expand the area subject to UXO clearance.

Huong Hoa is also the last district of QuangTri to benefit from the RENEW-NPA project, which has not only helped deal withUXOs but also promoted farming activities, especially the cultivation of coffeetrees – a key plant for economic development in the district.

Since 1996, Quang Tri has mobilised millionsof USD from foreign organisations to address addressing UXO consequences.

Notably, a project worth nearly 95,000 USD has been implemented since Marchthis year by the US’s Golden West Humanitarian Foundation to provide technicalsupport and build capacity for the province in post-war UXO clearance.

Additionally, the UK’s Mines Advisory Grouphas also pledged to add nearly 2.5 million USD to the sixth phase of a UXOclearance project from now to 2021 in Quang Tri.

Such projects have also organised UXOeducation, benefiting more than 160,000 primary and secondary school studentsin the province so far.

This is also an important solution to help theprovince become the first locality in Vietnam to be free of post-war UXO impactin 2025.

Thanks to local efforts and assistance fromforeign organisaitons, UXO accidents in Quang Tri have reduced, bringing downthe annual number of victims from about 70 between 2001 and 2005 to two in2017. Notably, the province did not record any UXO victims in 2018./.