Quang Tri (1 June 2020) – Today marks an important stage for Project RENEW/Norwegian People’s Aid (RENEEW/NPA) and the Quang Tri provincial authorities. Our Non-Technical Survey (NTS) operations have been completed in all of the accessible areas where RENEW/NPA was allowed to survey and this accounts for 76% of all total villages in Quang Tri Province.

The survey has been completed by 22 NTS staff, and during the past five years, these NTS staff has visited a total of 822 villages, in the nine districts of Quang Tri Province. A total of 51,914 local people with women accounting for 32% have been interviewed for the purpose of collecting information related to cluster munitions (CM) and other explosive ordnance (EO).

The most important steps in this NTS process include; 1) historical data study and entry of all data into IMSMA database, 2) arrange commune/village meetings, 3) interviews of all local residents with information and definition of locations with the presence of explosive ordnance was confirmed or definition of locations without any remaining explosive hazards found and finally, 4) report of the findings to Quang Tri Mine Action Centre (QTMAC) and planning for further follow-up evidence of EO by RENEW/NPA Technical Survey.

NTS is one of the two important steps in RENEW/NPA’s efforts of producing an overall map of cluster munitions and other explosive ordnance contaminated areas for the provincial authorities and clearance organizations to effectively plan clearance operations, contributing to fulfilling the strategy of making Quang Tri safe from the impact of explosive ordnance by 2025.

Starting from June 2020, RENEW/NPA will sustain ten NTS surveyors in Quang Tri, to be responsible for assessing impacts of the Confirmed Hazardous Areas (CHA) already defined during the Technical Survey and to possible survey any remaining areas/villages when access to these may be allowed.

The remaining NTS staff will be tasked to provide support to NPA NTS in the two provinces of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Binh. One pair of NTS operators will also be dispatched to the QTMAC to support the priority setting of the CHAs that need clearance.

The Survey & Clearance Program of Project RENEW – Norwegian People’s Aid is funded by the U.S. Department of State and the UK Department for International Development.

Project RENEW was established in 2001 as a joint effort between the government of Quang Tri Province and interested INGOs to “restore the environment and neutralize the effects of the war” – with the main focus on unexploded ordinance.

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is one of the leading organizations worldwide in humanitarian disarmament. NPA has worked in Vietnam since 2008 following the signing of an MOU with the government of Quang Tri People’s Committee to support the development of Project RENEW’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) capacity. NPA’s operational footprint now covers all of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue Provinces, with an increase of assets to four Battle Area Clearance teams, one Non-Technical Survey team, four EOD teams, and 25 Technical Survey teams.