Vietnam has 6.6 million ha of land contaminated with bombs and mines, which would take over 300 years to clear, according to the Vietnam Centre for Removing Bombs and Mines, which was introduced by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in Hanoi on February 23.

Since its inception in April 2008, the centre has identified a huge amount of explosive materials used by foreign armies in the wars in Vietnam, which is estimated to be 3.9 times higher than the figure for World War II and 12 times higher than that for the Korean War.

Every year, unexploded ordinance kills or maims thousands of people and destroys the property of both the state and people.

Vietnam spends about VND300 billion per year detecting and removing left-over bombs and mines.

However, this work has been focused on the greatest dangers – explosives lying on the ground or just at a depth of 0.3m underground in cultivation areas, so the danger from other remaining explosives after the war is still very great.
Each year, Vietnam clears unexploded ordinance from 20,000ha of land.