US starts Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam
Source: Agencies |
August 10, 2012, Friday
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THE United States began a landmark project yesterday to clean up a dangerous chemical left from the defoliant Agent Orange - 50 years after American planes first sprayed it on Vietnam's jungles during the Vietnam War.
Dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, will be removed from the site of a former US air base in Danang in central Vietnam. The effort is seen as a long-overdue step toward removing a thorn in relations between the former foes nearly four decades after the war ended.
"We are both moving earth and taking the first steps to bury the legacies of our past," US Ambassador David Shear said during the groundbreaking ceremony near where a rusty barbed wire fence marks the site's boundary. "I look forward to even more success to follow."
The US$43 million joint project with Vietnam is expected to be completed in four years on the 19-hectare contaminated site, now a Vietnamese military base near Danang's commercial airport. This is the first direct US involvement in cleaning up dioxin, which has seeped into Vietnam's soil and watersheds for generations.
Shear added that the US is planning to evaluate what's needed for remediation at the former Bien Hoa air base in southern Vietnam, another Agent Orange hotspot.
The Danang site is closed to the public. Part of it consists of a dry field where US troops once stored and mixed the defoliant before it was loaded onto planes. The area is ringed by tall grass, and a faint chemical scent could be smelled yesterday.
The contaminated area also includes lakes and wetlands dotted with pink lotus flowers where dioxin has seeped into soil and sediment over decades. A high concrete wall separates it from nearby communities and serves as a barrier to fishing there.
The US military dumped some 75 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971, decimating about 2 million hectares of forest.
The Agent Orange issue has continued to blight the US-Vietnam relationship because dioxin can linger in the environment for decades, entering the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals.
The Ministry of Defense and the US now plan to excavate 73,000 cubic meters employing technology used to clean superfund sites in the US.
Workers will first dig down about 2 meters. The soil will then be heated to 335 degrees Celsius in special containers where the dioxin will break down into oxygen, carbon dioxide and other substances that pose no health risks.
Dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, will be removed from the site of a former US air base in Danang in central Vietnam. The effort is seen as a long-overdue step toward removing a thorn in relations between the former foes nearly four decades after the war ended.
"We are both moving earth and taking the first steps to bury the legacies of our past," US Ambassador David Shear said during the groundbreaking ceremony near where a rusty barbed wire fence marks the site's boundary. "I look forward to even more success to follow."
The US$43 million joint project with Vietnam is expected to be completed in four years on the 19-hectare contaminated site, now a Vietnamese military base near Danang's commercial airport. This is the first direct US involvement in cleaning up dioxin, which has seeped into Vietnam's soil and watersheds for generations.
Shear added that the US is planning to evaluate what's needed for remediation at the former Bien Hoa air base in southern Vietnam, another Agent Orange hotspot.
The Danang site is closed to the public. Part of it consists of a dry field where US troops once stored and mixed the defoliant before it was loaded onto planes. The area is ringed by tall grass, and a faint chemical scent could be smelled yesterday.
The contaminated area also includes lakes and wetlands dotted with pink lotus flowers where dioxin has seeped into soil and sediment over decades. A high concrete wall separates it from nearby communities and serves as a barrier to fishing there.
The US military dumped some 75 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971, decimating about 2 million hectares of forest.
The Agent Orange issue has continued to blight the US-Vietnam relationship because dioxin can linger in the environment for decades, entering the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals.
The Ministry of Defense and the US now plan to excavate 73,000 cubic meters employing technology used to clean superfund sites in the US.
Workers will first dig down about 2 meters. The soil will then be heated to 335 degrees Celsius in special containers where the dioxin will break down into oxygen, carbon dioxide and other substances that pose no health risks.
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