Old Bomb Safely Deactivated in Dien Bien

The Dien Bien City Military Command and sappers from the Military High Command of this northern province safely detonated a bomb dropped by the U.S. troops during the Vietnam war. The 150-kg bomb was discovered by a construction unit last week at the foot of a hill between two residential areas in Him Lam Ward, Dien Bien Phu City. It was deactivated on March 14. This is the second bomb to be found in the province this year. On March 2, a bomb weighing over 300kg, which was discovered by a local man at the foot of a hill near a residential area in Him Lam Ward, was deactivated. According to the Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under the Engineering Command, up to 7,645 of the 8,686 communes in Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities are polluted with unexploded ordnance (UXOs). The US army used more than 15 million tons of bombs and mines in the war in Vietnam, four times the amount used in World War II. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among the countries most contaminated with UXOs. According to the National Steering Committee for Recovery over Postwar Bomb and Landmine Impacts, some 800,000 tons of UXOs are scattered across 6.6 million hectares, or 20.12% of the country’s land, mainly in the central region, putting people in danger everyday. Vietnam has cleared hundreds of thousands of hectares of UXOs to date. (Vietnam News Mar 15)