Dong Ha, Quang Tri (10 September 2019) — As of September 2019, urban dwellers of Dong Ha City, Quang Tri Province will benefit from Non-Technical Survey (NTS) operations of Project RENEW-Norwegian People’s Aid (RENEW-NPA). NTS is the first step in the ongoing Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) Survey and Clearance process which RENEW-NPA has already implemented in other districts of the province.
Following the completion of inception meetings between the NTS team representatives and authority representatives of seven wards in Dong Ha two weeks ago, NPA-RENEW NTS operators will conduct household interviews to identify evidence of the presence of ERW, also known as starting points, for Technical Survey follow-up. According to the mine action database at the Quang Tri Mine Action Center, accidents related to ERW have killed 177 people and injured 255 others in Dong Ha City since the war ended in 1975.
In the meeting with the leaders of the Ward 2 People’s Committee, Chairman Hoàng Nhật Thi said: “It is the local authority’s responsibility to cooperate with NPA-RENEW in the field of humanitarian mine action to ensure safety for residents in their daily activities.”
The Survey & Clearance Program of RENEW-NPA is funded by the U.S. Department of State and DFID, 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.
