Dong Ha, Quang Tri (19 Jan 2011)

A 60,000-square-meter site free of unexploded ordnance was handed over today by Project RENEW and its technical partner – the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to the land owner for a vocational college to be built in Dong Luong Ward, Dong Ha City.

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Following a request from the Mai Linh Vocational School to help prepare the land for relocation and expansion of its infrastructure, with NPA’s technical assistance, Project RENEW deployed its clearance team who worked during the last four months cleaning up the site.

Originally, the site was covered with a lot of thick bush and small trees, making it inaccessible for clearance. However, thanks to mechanical assistance a CAT diesel excavator, provided to Project RENEW by the U.S. Department of Defense, the team managed to speed up their clearance progress, meeting the handover deadline as agreed with the Mai Linh school management board..

“Now with the new land of six hectares cleaned up from UXO, our school will have sufficient space to improve our education facilities for accommodating 800 students and 80 teachers, which is important to the development of the local economy and making new job opportunities available,” said Ms. Dang Thi Hoa, Principal of Mai Linh Vocational School.

“Thanks to clearance efforts of Project RENEW, construction activities will be safe, and in the long run our students will study and prosper in an environment free from UXO threats,” she said.

In 2010, with one clearance team and two mobile EOD quick response teams, Project RENEW released a total of 322,000 square meters of safe land and safely destroyed 2,857 items of UXO.