Funding increase for UXO clearance

The Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao) has received its new budget, UXO Lao Director Mr Bounpone Sayasenh said at the annual meeting held in Vientiane on Friday.

Unexploded ordnance clea-rance is not getting cheaper, with fuel costs rising and the value of the US dollar falling, and costs are becoming harder to meet each year. The 2011 budget for UXO Lao is about US$7.9 million compared to 2010, when the budget was about US$6.8 million.

UXO Lao works to clear bo mbs in the provinces of Luang Prabang, Huaphan, Xieng Khuang, Khammuan, Savannakhet, Saravan, Xekong, Champassak and Attapeu. The organisation's workers have set themselves an ambitious goa l for 2011, with challenges ahead as they come to grips with detector problems.

However, setting the bar high will provide more motivation to solve technical problems and implement new technologies, Mr Bounpone said.

For UXO Lao to truly address the Convention on Cluster Munitions obligations “We need major increases in capacity; this can only be done by increased funding,” he said.

Last year was very busy for UXO Lao, he said, culminating in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The organisation had many visitors throughout the year and received a lot of media attention, which they hope will help procure future funding. UXO Lao has cleared more than 19,185 hectares of land since 1996.
More than 16,000 hectares of the cleared land is agricultural, bringing benefits to more than 3.3 million people. Staff have visited almost 8,500 villages and conducted community awareness activities on the dangers of unexploded ordnance.

So far UXO Lao staff have destroyed more than 973,000 devices, of which 46 percent were cluster bomb sub-munitions.


By Khonesavanh Latsaphao