An emergency report from Cua Tung Secondary School security man on September 27, has enabled NPA-RENEW’s mobile EOD team to safely destroy a dangerous cluster bomb found on the school football field. Photos: NPA-RENEW

In response to an emergency report from school guard, Nguyen Xuan Xanh, NPA-RENEW EOD Team No. 3 timely arrived in An Hoa Village of Cua Tung Townlet and approached the school football field where a piece of wartime ordnance was found. The device was identified a cluster bomb type BLU-3/B, locally called as ‘pineapple bomb” which had been exposed on the ground after days of torrential rain.

Xanh said that the bomb might have been mixed with soil dumbed to build the football field in summer. He immediately reported his finding to an NPA-RENEW Technical Survey team who is working in An Hoa Village. The school resumed its normal activity after the BLU-3/B had been safely destroyed in situ.

700 students and teachers resumed normal activity after the team completed the demolition.

The main objective of Project RENEW’s Mine Risk Education is the risk of explosive remnants of war (ERW) accidents among chilren and adults is reduced and eventually eliminated through education, information, and public awareness in support of EOD quick response.

Project RENEW’s practical successes in clearance of UXO during the past years, in partnership with NPA, have proven that removal and destruction of the most lethal threat must be the priority, that the danger can be confronted, and ordnance can be cleaned up, safely. That’s where MRE plays an integral role – by educating children and adults, who must continue to live with the threat of UXO, about how they can live safely, how they can avoid accident and injury, how they can be part of the day-to-day solution to this problem.

The clean-up of wartime debris will likely continue for years. However, children and adults can be safe if they are educated about UXO risks and provided with guidance on what to do when they encounter ERW around their homes and gardens, roadsides and school yards./.