Mine clearance reaches halfway mark, 2025 target in sight

Mine clearance reaches halfway mark, 2025 target in sight

Mine clearance experts have said that Cambodia has reached the halfway mark of clearing mines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and the goal of clearing the entire country by 2025 is within reach.

“As of 2021, CMAC, HALO Trust and MAG are conducting baseline surveys to record suspected minefields that have not been identified by the previous survey and are also conducting land release (Non-Technical Surevy, Technical Survey and Clearance),” said a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report produced by the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) and released recently and titled “Baseline Survey, Non-Technical Survey, and Technical Survey”.

CMAA first vice-president Ly Thuch said that according to the baseline survey report, it completed surveys in 124 districts and of around 2,000 square kilometres of land, equivalent to the size of Phnom Penh or Singapore, that have been cleared.

“Mine clearance was done to free up land for agriculture and productive use to support local reconstruction and development projects after determining the locations through information from the people,” he said.

“We hope to clear the remaining 2,000 square kilometres by 2025 or 2030 if there is enough funding from partner countries, like Canada which has promised to help mine clearance by donating through the UNDP,” Thuch added.

Denise Coghlan from Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), who works closely with landmine victims, said she is happy to hear about the survey done by CMAA as it has done a good job on the report together with Halo Trust which should get credit for the actual removal of landmines.

“Cambodia will achieve clearance of landmines by 2025. This is their goal and a very good point for Cambodia,” said Coghlan.

Thuch explained that while CMAA conducts surveys, the Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) has deminers who clear rice fields and land used by forestry communities.

“We have to do this survey to check if it is safe for villagers to walk around or do farming free from landmines,” said Thuch.

“It is a very important job for us to make sure landmines are cleared in the areas where our young children play, who were not involved with war but are the victims of war, especially landmines or remnants of war from our older generation,” he said.

Sun Nha, a 64-year-old farmer in Battambang province, told Khmer Times that her farm is on a former battlefield and there were a lot of mines when she started growing cassava on the land about 10 years ago.

She said that after the deminer team from CMAC cleared the land she is not afraid anymore but she still has to be careful about landmines because rain can erode topsoil and expose a hidden mine and they can shift under the ground to new places.

Chet Khun, a farmer in Pailin, said that he has been planting corn for more than eight years and there were a lot of anti-tank mines near his farmland in 2015, but after the land was cleared of mines, he was able to expand his farm.

A recent UNDP report titled “Clearing for Result-Mine Action for Human Development” stated that landmines and ERW continue to be an issue in Cambodia as there remains about 2,000 square kilometres of contaminated land to be cleared.