The Prime Minister has adopted a project on mine, bomb and explosive remnants clearance in Ky Anh, Huong Son and Can Loc districts in the central province of Ha Tinh.

Photo for illustration. (Source: baotintuc.vn)

The project will be carried out over the next 25 months with non-refundable assistance worth nearly USD4 million from the Japanese Government through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

The project’s overall target is to promote socio-economic development and ensure social security and order in the province, contributing to the national construction and protection.

In particular, the project will clear bombs, mines and explosive objects over an area of 2,550 hectares of land heavily contaminated with bombs, mines and explosive ordinance up to five meters below the surface of the ground.

The war ended nearly 40 years ago however, statistics show that some 6 million hectares of land across the country remain contaminated, unsafe and unproductive as a result of the estimated 800,000 tons of abandoned explosives. Of the localities, the 7 provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien – Hue, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai report the largest areas of pollution.

According to an estimate by the Ministry of Labour, War-Invalids and Social Affairs, it will take Vietnam approximately 300 years to clear all the remaining bombs and mines at the present rate of clearance./.

( Compiled by VNF )