Land mines kills...even long long after the wars have stopped....remove these past sins of war...

Landmines and unexploded ordnance are a significant barrier to economic and social development in many parts of the world, seriously affecting countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan in this region. The current methods for mine clearance are essentially unchanged since the 1940's when advances in electronics provided portable metal detectors. An early scene from the popular film 'The English Patient' provides a graphic demonstration. The work is risky, labor-intensive and slow.
The UN lists 70 countries affected by mines, and experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere has shown that it takes many years to establish an effective demining program in a post-conflict situation. Current demining programs measure their progress in terms of a few square kilometers of cleared land each year. In Afghanistan, approximately 25 sq km of land is cleared annually by removing about 20,000 mines and many other kinds of unexploded ordnance . With an estimated 10,000,000 mines still in the ground, removing them may take 500 years.
Thinking about the number of mines is pointless when estimates range from a few million to 150 million. It is much more sensible to think in terms of the areas of land which are:
a) known to be affected by mines, and are important to local populations: homes, food producing land, roads, infrastructure (roads, canals, power lines, water supplies etc.)
b) believed to be affected by mines
c) known or believed to be affected by mines, but land is of no immediate importance.
Reliable forecasts are based on the estimated area of mine-affected land which needs to be cleared. About 320 sq. km of high priority land remains to be cleared in Afghanistan taking about twelve years at current rates of progress. Surveys suggest that a further 400 sq. km of lower priority land also needs clearance.
The time needed to clear land varies enormously depending on local conditions, but the number of mines hardly affects the time required. Destroying them is quick and safe once they are found and identified. It is finding them that takes the time.
What, then, are realistic objectives? Do we really know enough about the mine problem to design an appropriate world-wide action plan? Are there technologies which could dramatically reduce the cost of mine clearance? Unfortunately there are many 'myths' and misleading ideas on landmines and mine clearance now. We need to understand more about the real problems on the ground to see why well-meaning governments are wasting money, and why mine clearance is progressing so slowly.
The signing of the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines was accompanied by an announcement by the USA of the '2010 Initiative' - to eliminate anti-personnel mines from the world by the year 2010. This commits the US Government to an effort to lift global spending on demining to $1bn/year, including existing classified military research and private contributions of $350m. However, the total pledged for mine clearance programs falls far short of the $33 billion which the UN estimates is needed to achieve this goal.
Current research suggests that demining costs can be effectively reduced by combining creative ideas with local innovation and participation. A modest increase in resources for mine clearance could provide far more beneficial results than relying on a solution derived from the by-products of military and other 'high technology' research.