Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo
Tuan Nhan has agreed to expand the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s microbiological
method to detoxify soil contaminated with Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin in A Luoi
district in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.
The method is
being piloted at the district’s A Sho airport and helps reduce dioxin
concentration in contaminated land by 35 percent, according to a report of the
Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE).
Speaking at a
working session in Hanoi on February 28 with representatives from the RoK’s BJC
Company, Nhan assigned the Vietnam Environment Administration and VACNE to
discuss an expansion plan with the company to improve the soil environment in
the locality.
Participants at
the session lauded the capacity and efforts of Korean experts. They expressed
their hope that the method will be carried out on a larger scale to boost the
district’s socio-economic development.
From 1961 to 1971,
American troops sprayed more than 80 million litres of herbicides — 44 million
litres of which were AO, containing nearly 370kg of dioxin — over southern
Vietnam.
The mountainous
district was sprayed with 432,812 litres of grass-killing chemicals during the
10-year period.
A Sho, a temporary
airport during the war, was used for parking and washing of airplanes after
spraying was completed, resulting in serious contamination of the area with
dioxin.-VNA
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