A total of 1,414 explosives left from the war have been safely detonated in the central province of Quang Tri - Illustrative image (Source: VNA)QuangTri (VNA) – A total of 1,414 explosives left from the war have beensafely detonated in the central province of Quang Tri, said the Mines AdvisoryGroup (MAG) on August 14.
They werediscovered in two underground pits containing ammunition in An Luu hamlet in theprovince’s Trieu Phong district. The pits are 15m apart, containing explosives of different types, such as mortarshells, grenades and detonators.
The MAG is registered as a charitable company in the UK. It is a humanitarianand advocacy organisation that finds, removes and destroys landmines,cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict.
More than 328,000 tonnes of explosives wereused in Quang Tri town in 1972 during the war against the US. The MAG’s unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearanceproject in the province began in 1999.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam isone of countries most contaminated with UXOs.
It is estimated that about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs were left across the countryafter the war ended in 1975, mostly in the central region. Some 6.13 millionhectares of land are polluted with or suspected of being polluted with UXOs,accounting for 18.82 percent of the country’s total area.
Since 1975, UXO incidents have killed more than 40,000 people and injured60,000 others, most of whom were breadwinners of their families orchildren.-VNA
VNA
