MAG and World Vision have begun an innovative new project to clear unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improve livelihoods in 24 villages in Khammouane Province.
The target villages are in Mahaxay District and are all heavily contaminated with UXO, creating an obstacle to development for the 6,000-plus people who live there. Funding of US$864,885 is being provided by AusAID.
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An innovative element of the project is the inclusion of the “Safe Community” approach, which will encourage communities to take responsibility for reducing the risk from UXO.
The idea is that once MAG has completed its work in a village, community members are able to undertake ongoing risk management.
One activity would be to support key community members to determine what forms of risk behaviour are acceptable or unacceptable. For example, communities may decide that it is inappropriate for people to bring live ordnance into the village because of the increased risk of injury to other people, or that children should not be allowed to collect and sell scrap metal. Guidelines to deal with unacceptable risks could then be developed.
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• Lao PDR is the most bombed country in the world per capita. • Up to 30 per cent of the ordnance dropped between 1964 and 1973 did not detonate. • Unexploded ordnance (UXO) still contaminates the ground, affecting a quarter of all villages. Photo, top: Children fishing in Khammouane Province. Many children in rural Lao PDR spend their time foraging for food and working in the rice paddies rather than going to school. Photo, above: Every day the team find cluster bombs submunitions and other kinds of ordnance. |
Both UXO clearance and support to improve livelihoods are much needed in Mahaxai, a district that the World Food Programme categorises as highly vulnerable to food insecurity.
One of the reasons for this is that community members do not have sufficient land to grow the food they need, but are afraid to expand their fields because of the UXO. This means that many families do not have enough rice to last them the whole year, and are instead reliant on foraging.
This project is specifically linked to two important goals. The first is the Lao Government’s goal of lifting the country from Least Developed Country status by the year 2020. The second is AusAID’s goal of contributing to poverty eradication in Lao PDR, through the Laos-Australia NGO Co-operation Agreement (LANGOCA) program.
AusAID has supported various UXO-related projects implemented by MAG or World Vision over the last decade.
