“Life is totally different compared to the past,” said Mr Onsi, a farmer from Naphao village, Khammouane province. He is talking about the impact a new bridge has made to his village.
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Mr Phone: "My family has been given a new opportunity." |
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Going places: UXO clearance has assisted economic development. [Photos: MAG Lao] |
The bridge has been built over a river that separated his village from the outside world for up to six months of the year.
Mr Onsi is not exaggerating. The sick no longer have to be carried through a river to reach a doctor. Food products can be sold in neighbouring villages, providing money to buy rice in times of shortage. And for the first time, children can attend school all year round.
There was no bridge until recently, because his village lies in Boualapha district – one of the most heavily unexploded ordnance (UXO)-contaminated places in Lao PDR. Construction work is always risky: hammering in posts or digging could easily detonate UXO hidden in the ground.
But EC funding of one million euros has allowed MAG to clear UXO in the area. During a recently completed two-year project called ‘Humanitarian UXO Clearance’, MAG destroyed 4,340 items of UXO.
About 450,000 square metres of land was cleared for a ‘special economic zone’ that the local authorities are developing in Langkang, close to the border with Vietnam. Land has also been cleared in support of the World Food Programme, who built the bridge in Ban Naphao and three access roads in the area.
MAG also cleared about 700,000 square metres of agricultural land as part of the project.
In nearby Nongboua village, Mr Phone’s family now has a rice surplus for the first time ever (equivalent to two months consumption). MAG cleared his existing rice fields and new land to expand his harvest, something he had been reluctant to do before, despite only being able to grow enough rice to last for ten months of every year.
"I wanted to expand into new fields," he said. "But there was a lot of UXO around the village and I was not confident to dig in new areas."
"Now, when I am digging and I hit something under the surface, I know it is a tree root and not some UXO."
As well as bringing security, the extra rice means that Mr Phone’s family no longer has to spend so much time looking for food in the forest, and can use their spare time to earn money to buy pigs and poultry.
"My family has been given a new opportunity, and land that is safe and free from UXO. In the future, this land will be passed on to my children," he said.
Links:
» More on MAG's work in Lao PDR
» European Commission homepage
» World Food Programme homepage
2 June 08
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