Unexploded bombs and other unexploded ordnances (UXOs) left from the American War are still commonly found in many scrapyards in the central province of Quang Tri, obviously posing massive risks to local people.
Huong Hoa District in the west of Quang Tri Province was one of the most severely bombarded areas during the American War. And even now there are six large scrap metal warehouses here which mainly trade in unexploded bombs.
Piles of UXOs at a scrapyard in Huong Hoa District, Quang Tri Province
At a scrapyard owned by Nguyen Phuc, 64, in Tan Hop Commune, many kinds of bombs can be found among various other scrap including MK8 and MK82.
Phuc said that these bombs were all inactive.
"Those thought to be active are carefully placed over there," he said, pointing to a corner with dozens of bombs lying on the floor. "We classify them very carefully."
Phuc said he has been trading scrap metal for 15 years and he and many other local people who have made a living from found UXOs, all have lots of experience in handling them.
"We used to trade between 30 and 40 tonnes of scrap metals a day," he said "It has now become more difficult to find these UXOs in the area and local people here, who are mostly from ethnic minority groups, are having to go as far as the Laos border in their search."
Phuc also admitted that they were aware of the risks from this work but thought it was necessary to earn a living.
"Many local people will try to deactivate the bombs they find, even use metal cutters to take them apart and sell the metal which can be good quality steel, aluminium and copper," Phuc said. "Accidents occur sometimes which kill and injure people around us, but we have limited choices for other jobs so many continue. There were three explosions caused by these bombs two years ago here in my yard. Luckily we were away at that time."
According to head of the province's landmine detection group, Nguyen Van Cuong, there are 10 large scrapyards in the two mountainous districts of Huong Hoa and Dak Rong which mainly trade in UXOs left from the American war.
"Although scrapyards dealers here have some certain knowledge about these UXOs sometimes there are still explosions caused by phosphous bombs which are difficult to identify," Cuong said. "We are finding one or two of these bombs at these yards every week in our patrols. Many of these yards are closely located to residential areas so pose big risk to people's life.
Head of the Department of Police in Huong Hoa District, Phan Thanh Quang, said that they are aware of the risks and were proposing more measures to better manage these yards.
"We are proposing to set up a special force to manage the scrapyards and move them further away from housing," Quang said.
