CHA-1094 is located in Hoa Thanh village, Tan Hop commune, Huong Hoa district and is close to Ta Con airport, which is a particularly important war zone during the Vietnam war. During the Vietnam War in the period of 1966 - 1968, Ta Con airport was an air bridge in the strategic military base of the US military, an important link of the Khe Sanh stronghold.
At the time of clearance, CHA-1094 was a site with relatively flat terrain, densely populated and people cultivated mainly agricultural land with a variety of crops such as: coffee, wet rice, ginger, turmeric, potato, cassava, pennisetum purpureum, flower garden, short-term crops, ... For coffee trees, which are the main crops grown in this area, during the harvesting season (about every 3 months) clearance teams will be restricted from entering the garden because its actitvities may drop ripe coffee beans which results in affecting the harvest productivity of the coffee garden, so BAC teams had to stop and moved to another area and wait until it is harvested.
Disadvantages: Because there are many types of crops harvested and exploited at different times of the year, along with some types of intercropping and rotating crops, this is one of the difficulties in the process of conducting assessment, prioritizing for clearance. For the assessment process to prioritize clearance, the field teams are still limited by some situations where people can't be contacted or people working far away and can't meet face-to-face to discuss about the clearance.
CHA-1094 is one of the difficult CHA fields for BAC teams because of its red basaltic soil with high mineral, metal contamination and a large number of EOs collected; therefore, the clearing and signal handling process took a lot of time which affected the targeted clearance area. Besides, the site has a densely populated area, most of the area is agricultural land where local people cultivate all year round and intercrop many crops, so this is also one of the disadvantages when the teams have to evaluate and prioritize clearance in many different areas and at different times of the year.
The reason why local people at first did not approve of PTVN clearing at the field:
With a fairly large total area, agricultural land accounts for the majority and a number of crops are cultivated by local people all year round, including some areas at first local people did not agree for BAC teams to conduct clearance because they were afraid of garden and furrows damage, affecting the harvesting quality of the garden.
After discussing and explaining to local people about the risk of Explosive remnants of war that may be left on the area as well as explaining to people about the process and methods of clearing teams so as not to affect the garden, the owners have agreed for BAC teams to conduct clearance.
Change in the perception of beneficiaries after knowing there is a quantity of EOs detected, collected and destroyed:
According to the survey, the total number of beneficiaries from clearance activities at CHA-1094 is 1,674 people, of which the numbers of direct beneficiaries are gardeners and farmers in the area. After the people and gardeners knew about the results of PTVN's clearance teams which collected and destroyed a lot of EOs (with 2,974 EOs) on the area where local people have been cultivating over the past year, they were very satisfied and were aware of the importance and safety after their gardens and farms were cleared by BAC teams. (Previously, when asked for information, some people confirmed that this land has been plowed and planted many types of trees and crops over a long time, therefore, it is difficult to have any EOs left over).
Land use plan of the beneficiaries:
According to the survey and recorded after the clearance operation is completed, the agricultural areas at CHA-1094 will continue to be exploited and replanted with coffee trees with intercropping with many short-term crops such as ginger, turmeric, potato, .... Besides, there are also some wasteland thanks to the field teams cleared, people will expand agricultural land for other crops. Wet rice growing areas or flower gardens will continue to be cultivated.
- Lessons learned from clearance activities at CHA-1094:
- The approaching process, persistently explaining to local people and clarifying the benefits that people get after the clearing activities are the key factors for the success of the work.
- For areas with mineral and metal contamination, the clearance process will be affected, so the expected time to finish the field will be longer than usual.
- For the Field Team, priority will be given to clear in areas growing short-term agricultural crops such as ginger, turmeric, potatoes, cassava, flowers, wet rice, .. (crops harvested during the year). Coffee growing areas are usually harvested from September to November of the year, so the field teams should avoid clearing at this time and give clearing priority to dry periods so as not to affect the metal detectors and equipments when used in the garden. Wasteland areas will be assessed for clearance after the above areas are completed because these areas will not be dependent on farmers.
- CHA areas with a high number of beneficiaries mean that clearance process is affected because it will be dependent on local people in the farming process. Therefore, the process of field survey and assessment is very important, such as asking for specific information, when it is possible to clear, combined with educating people about the risk of Explosive Ordnances. ...
Source: PTVN
