CLEARANCE, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Staff of the Clearance / R&D Program

Major activities A specialized  team was established in September 2007 to carry out static clearance on fixed tracts of land, combined with testing and evaluation of ERW detection technology under technical assistance from the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (GWHF).

1. Ai Tu handcraft village task site
The team cleared an area of 5.6 ha in Ai Tu Townlet, Trieu Phong District and destroyed 81 items of ERW. This area was a U.S. military logistics base during the war, adjacent to the Ai Tu air field and a U.S. base called Phoenix. Construction is now underway at the cleared site for a future handcraft village.

2. Vung Ha task site (Phase 1)
This task site is situated on the north bank of the Thach Han River across from the historic Citadel on the other side of the river. This is the location of some of the war’s bloodiest fightings during the “blaze summer” of 1972, and until the end of the war in 1975.  It was also the site where POWs were exchanged and released from both sides after the Paris Agreement was signed in 1973. The provincial government has approved an expansion plan for Quang Tri Township which will bring new development to this 60-ha site. Project RENEW is undertaking clearance responsibilities at the request of Vietnamese authorities and with funding from the U.S. government.  Phase 1 of the project, covering 27 hectares, will be cleared and handed over in December 2009.

3. Clearance technology testing and development
With the aim of reducing the time required for manual, expensive clearance and speeding up the rate of land turned over to local people for farming or other needs, Project RENEW is working closely with GWHF to develop and field test “area reduction” detection technologies. High-tech on-board computers mounted on specially modified mobile machinery are being used to clear nearly 1,000 hectares of land to be used for an ecological village in Trieu Trach Commune, Trieu Phong District.

Modular detection array working on the site

GPS devices and a tractor-mounted modular detection array significantly speed up identification of suspected targets and allow the team to clear the areas at a much faster pace. During one 3-month period, 33.5 hectares were scanned and 22.1 ha (66%) were determined not likely to need further intervention, dramatically reducing the man-hours and costs for this operation. A total of 86 items of UXO have been found and safely destroyed on the site since operations began in October, 2007.

Based on current UXO clearance speed and techniques being applied in Quang Tri Province, it could take as long as 30 years to clean up the province at the present rate. However, if the equipment and technology being developed in this effort continue to prove successful, the breakthrough could significantly accelerate the progress of ERW clearance in Quang Tri Province and in other contaminated areas of Vietnam.

Public Safety
Local scrap yards, where scrap metal collectors sometimes bring dangeorus ERW, pose an imminent danger to the neighbors living nearby, especially children. Project RENEW has provided 26 concrete bins with lockable lids to 26 scrap metal dealers throughout Hai Lang and Trieu Phong Districts, and Quang Tri Township. On a weekly basis, RENEW staff make the rounds to each scrap yard, record the number of ERW placed in the bins, and pass the information on to the clearance team for safe collection and disposal. From April 2008 until the present time, nearly 2,000 items of ERW have been collected and safely destroyed.

Officer in charge:
Mr. Ngo Thien Loi
Mobile: (+84) 913 443 664
E-mail:  loirenew@gmail.com

[back]