Fathi al-Shazli, head of the demining committee at the Ministry of International Cooperation announced the launch of the second phase of the demining project of Egypt’s Western Desert. The second phase of this project, which is financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Fathi al-Shazli, head of the demining committee at the Ministry of International Cooperation announced the launch of the second phase of the demining project of Egypt’s Western Desert. The second phase of this project, which is financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), involves 71,146 feddans, said al-Shazli and is expected to take between five and seven years, at a cost between USD20 million to USD23 million. He pointed out that there is no accurate figure at hand of the total mine area in the Western Desert.
Shazli also announced the start of training sessions for members of the NGOs working in that domain. In cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and at a budget of USD65,000, some 120 families who were harmed by the mines will receive loans to start small projects such as sheep or poultry rearing.
According to Shazli, 31,250 feddans in the Western Desert were demined during the first phase of the project, which started in February 2009, only representing some 6 per cent of the entire mine area in the Western Desert, at a cost of USD2,376,895. During the first phase, he explained, 315,000 mines were removed, and 243 individuals injured by the mines were fitted with prosthetic limbs.
The mines were planted in Egypt’s Western Desert by the Allied Forces in WWII.
Watani International
22 February 2012
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