Irrigation not mines

With farmland in Cambodia becoming a scarce commodity, 38-year-old Chay was forced to move to Thailand to search for work. He returned to Cambodia in 2015, when he heard that HALO was clearing landmines on farmland owned by his family.

“I planted an orchard of 500 durian and mango trees,” he explains. “HALO also cleared a nearby stream, so my niece Pros decided to install a communal irrigation system. She now grows corn, cucumbers and string beans alongside me. My father-in-law was so impressed he paid for a small reservoir to be excavated for us, which will cut costs on fuel needed to pump water around our crops. Now we plan to expand our farm to one square hectare. We’ve had talks with a fruit and vegetable wholesaler who sells produce in the city.”

Chay now hopes to add fish to his reservoir, as a further source of income. As for Pros, she has not only witnessed HALO destroy 42 anti-personnel landmines, but created a whole new business opportunity. She is only too aware that before mine clearance she was set to join her husband working as a labourer across the border in Thailand.

But Chay and Pros’ story is just one example of how mine clearance is benefitting tens of thousands of Cambodia’s rural poor.

During the first three months of 2017, US-funded clearance teams cleared over 2 million square metres of land across the border provinces of Otdar Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Pursat, destroying 505 anti-personnel mines and 53 anti-tank mines.

Before mine clearance started, HALO looked at income levels among rural communities. We collected statistics such as yearly income, per-person per-day income and how beneficiaries intended to use the land once the ground had been cleared of landmines.

When we returned to the cleared land a year later, we assessed income levels again. Before clearance, only 47% of houses were in the bracket categorised as ‘near poor’ by the World Bank ($2.30 per day). But one year after clearance, this proportion had risen to 75% of households.