Competent forces in Dak Mil district of the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong, safely detonated a Mark 82 (MK82) bomb weighing 227kg on July 19. 

The bomb, measuring 1.67m in length and 27.4cm in diameter, was detected by a resident in Dak R’la commune on July 11 while he was planting pepper trees. 

Dak Mil district’s armed forces also deactivated 105mm and 130mm shells found in Duc Manh and Thuan An communes on July 19. 

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 cities and provinces are still polluted with unexploded ordnances (UXOs). 

The US army used more than 15 million tonnes of bombs and mines in Vietnam during the war, four times the amount used in World War II. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among those countries most contaminated with UXOs. 

According to the National Steering Committee for Recovery of Postwar Bomb and Landmine Impacts, about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs are still scattered across 6.6 million ha – or 20.12 percent of the country’s surface area, mainly in the central region – putting people in danger every day. 

Vietnam has already cleared hundreds of thousands of hectares of UXOs so far. -VNA