The NRA has decided to adopt IMSMA version 4 as the National Database system. IMSMA will be installed in Laos in mid-July 2007 by the IMSMA team from GICHD. Two staff from NRA and one from UXO Lao will attend initial training at GICHD in June 2007.
The National UXO Database Unit has been supported by the genorous funding of Austcare.
Since September 2006 this funding has provided support for one TA (from FSD). Many mapping products have been created and are now available either by direct request to NRA or via these webpages.
The NSP further divides contaminated areas into high, medium and low priority, to be categorized after the planned village impact survey. High priority areas include agricultural land, roving clearance, health and educational facilities. Medium priorities are grazing and forest land, government buildings and other public areas such as markets. Low priority tasks include business or commerical areas, infrastructure, and tourism. UXO Lao is expected to focus on the high priority category, completing clearance or marking of all these areas by 2013. Low priority areas are expected to be handled by commercial operators
Lao PDR is easily the world's most heavily UXO-contaminated nation. During the war of 1963-1975, extensive aerial bombing and ground battles led to more than 2 million tons of ordnance being dropped on the country, with up to 30 percent not detonating on impact. Bombing records and results from the Socio-Economic Impact Survey carried out by HIB in 1996 indicate that over 87,000 square kilometers of land could be contaminated. Linkages between the UXO/mine action programme and the government's National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES) are formally established in priority setting and in the tasking of resources. The NGPES has determined that 72 of the total 142 districts in the country are considered as "very poor" (47) or "poor" (25). The map of the UXO contaminated areas shows an extremely high level of coincidence with those poor districts and it is indisputable that the presence of UXO had a detrimental impact on the poverty reduction efforts implemented by development agencies as well as on local initiatives to improve villagers' livelihood.
In the absence of a systematic ongoing data collection system, the number of UXO victims cannot be established with certainty. However, since 1975, it is estimated that there has been at least 11,000 UXO related casualties increasing an estimated rate of at least 200 to 400 per year. This year there has been a marked increase in casualties, related directly to the increased value of scrap metal and the consequent hunting for and salvaging of UXO.
Beside the direct implications for the victims, the presence of UXO prevents access to agriculture land, disturbs traditional land use pattern and causes an increased pressure on natural environment. Any kind of development programme taking place in the UXO affected areas (road building, school construction or development of tourism) will definitely be exposed to risks from UXO. The lack of safe access to agricultural land is causing chronic food insecurity to many people living in UXO contaminated districts. This is complicated by the difficulty in reaching remote areas due to the absence of communication infrastructure and the mountainous terrain.
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