During Fiscal Year 2010, the Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs provided nearly $25 million in Iraq for conventional weapons destruction efforts.
The effort cleared landmines and unexploded ordnance from more than 18 million square meters across Iraq, boosting economic and agricultural development throughout the nation, the department said in a statement.
The funds also provided mine- and unexploded ordnance- risk education to nearly 35,000 Iraqi men, women and children. This includes an innovative program through the nongovernmental organization “Spirit of Soccer” to train male and female soccer coaches and to teach youth about the potential risks, which they in turn can spread throughout their communities.
Other State Department-funded partners in Iraq include: Danish Demining Group, Iraq Mine/Unexploded Ordnance Clearance Organization (IMCO), Information Management and Mine Action Programs, Marshall Legacy Institute, MAG (Mines Advisory Group),
Montgomery Village Rotary Foundation, Norwegian People’s Aid, RONCO Consulting Corp., and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Mine Action Team- Iraq.
Despite progress, much work remains, as much as 1,730 square kilometers of land in Iraq are still believed to contain as many as 20 million landmines and millions more pieces of unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations. Roughly 90 percent of this area is located in agricultural lands, making clearance an economic necessity as well as a security priority.
Since 2003, the United States has invested more than $200 million in Conventional Weapons Destruction programs in Iraq aimed at clearance and safe disposal of landmines, unexploded ordnance and excess weapons and munitions.