Japan Grants $4M to UXO Cleanup Project in Vietnam

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a $4 million non-refundable aid from the government of Japan to carry out an unexploded ordnance (UXO) cleanup project in the central province of Ha Tinh. Through Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF), the project, sponsored by the Japanese Government through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund, will aim to disarm bombs, mines and explosives left in the Vietnam War in the locality within 25 months. The project is expected to help clean up an area of 2,550 ha in three districts of Ky Anh, Can Loc and Huong Son. The U.S. army used more than 15 million tons of UXO in Vietnam in the war and 10% of them are unexploded and scattered everywhere. Domestic and foreign experts said that Vietnam needs 300 years more to remove all bombs and mines. Landmines and dioxin remain a thorny issue preventing the further development of the bilateral ties despite efforts to overcome the consequences that killed and caused injury to more than 100,000 Vietnamese people since the end of the Vietnam War. (Chinhphu.vn Mar 18, Cong An Nhan Dan - People’s Police Mar 18 p1, Phap Luat Viet Nam - Vietnam Law Mar 18 p2)