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FROM THE FIELD

LAO PDR: Blast from the past
13 Nov 2008 15:46:00 GMT
 Source: MAG (Mines Advisory Group)
Website: Website: http://www.maginternational.org/laopdr

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The sound of the demolitions could be heard 10 kilometres away.
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The sound of the demolitions could be heard 10 kilometres away.
MAG Lao
Phonsavanh town has been rocked by the biggest explosions heard since the end of the Vietnamese- American War more than 35 years ago.

This time though, the blasts have a more peaceful intent - destroying thousands of items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from the late 1960s/early 1970s conflict.

With funding from the US Department of State, MAG has over recent weeks been conducting bulk demolitions of items piled up at a scrap metal foundry in the town.

Several demolitions, each destroying items with a total weight of more than one ton, have been carried out.

"The huge explosions from these demolitions been heard all over Phonsavanh, even though the demolition site is around 10 kilometres away," said Soth Phommalinh, MAG's Provincial Programme Manager.

MAG's innovative Foundry Project is the first of its kind in Lao PDR. The initiative sees MAG work with the local scrap metal industry to clear UXO from the foundry and scrap dealers' yards, reduce the acceptability of UXO within the trade, provide scrap dealers with safety briefings and a reporting system for UXO.

The foundry is the final destination of much of the scrap collected in Xieng Khouang. Since the project started in June 2008, more than 25,000 items at the foundry have been carefully examined and sorted into groups for demolition.

Most items have been moved away from the town for demolition, but some are too dangerous to move and will be dealt with in situ. Local residents in the vicinity will be evacuated first.

The next stage of the project is to clear an estimated five to six thousand items of UXO from scrap dealers' yards.




[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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