Vietnam and US in joint Agent Orange clean-up
Source: Agencies |
June 18, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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VIETNAM yesterday began the first phase of a joint plan with the United States to clean up environmental damage left over from the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, a lasting legacy of the Vietnam War.
The work concentrates on a former US military base in central Vietnam where the herbicide was stored during the war that ended more than three decades ago. It marks the first time the two sides will work together on the ground to clean up contamination.
A statement by the US Embassy in Hanoi said Vietnam's Ministry of Defense will begin sweeping areas around the Danang airport for unexploded ordnance. It will then work with the US Agency for International Development to remove dioxin from soil and sediment at the site.
US aircraft sprayed millions of liters of the chemical over South Vietnam during the war to destroy guerrilla fighters' jungle cover.
Contamination from dioxin - a chemical used in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancers and birth defects - has remained a thorny topic between the former foes as relations have thrived in other areas.
Washington was slow to respond to the issue, arguing for years that more research was needed to show that the wartime spraying caused health problems and disabilities among Vietnamese.
"As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked while visiting Vietnam last October, the dioxin in the ground here is 'a legacy of the painful past we share,' but the project we will undertake here, as our two nations work hand-in-hand to clean up this site, is 'a sign of the hopeful future we are building together,'" said Virginia Palmer, the US Embassy's charge d'affaires, in a speech during the kickoff ceremony.
Vietnam's Red Cross estimates up to 3 million Vietnamese have suffered health-related problems from Agent Orange exposure.
The work concentrates on a former US military base in central Vietnam where the herbicide was stored during the war that ended more than three decades ago. It marks the first time the two sides will work together on the ground to clean up contamination.
A statement by the US Embassy in Hanoi said Vietnam's Ministry of Defense will begin sweeping areas around the Danang airport for unexploded ordnance. It will then work with the US Agency for International Development to remove dioxin from soil and sediment at the site.
US aircraft sprayed millions of liters of the chemical over South Vietnam during the war to destroy guerrilla fighters' jungle cover.
Contamination from dioxin - a chemical used in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancers and birth defects - has remained a thorny topic between the former foes as relations have thrived in other areas.
Washington was slow to respond to the issue, arguing for years that more research was needed to show that the wartime spraying caused health problems and disabilities among Vietnamese.
"As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked while visiting Vietnam last October, the dioxin in the ground here is 'a legacy of the painful past we share,' but the project we will undertake here, as our two nations work hand-in-hand to clean up this site, is 'a sign of the hopeful future we are building together,'" said Virginia Palmer, the US Embassy's charge d'affaires, in a speech during the kickoff ceremony.
Vietnam's Red Cross estimates up to 3 million Vietnamese have suffered health-related problems from Agent Orange exposure.
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