VIENTIANE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance team MAG Laos on Monday found two large unexploded bombs in Langkhang village, Bualapha district, southern Laos' Khammuan province.
The large air-dropped bombs weighing 500 lbs were found 30 meters away from each other and about 3 km from a residential area in Khammuan province, some 250 km southeast of Lao capital Vientiane, according to the MAG clearance team.
The bombs were defused before being carefully excavated and moved to a demolition site to be safely destroyed.
Authorities and the UXO clearance teams including MAG are carrying out survey and clearance in many areas of the district, local daily Vientiane Times on Wednesday quoted Bualapha district Governer Bounkuang Keobounyong as saying.
"Bualapha district was heavily contaminated with UXO and local residents are still risk," he said.
"In 2017, UXO-related accidents killed two children in Bualapha district but last year there were no reports of any accidents. We advise people to be careful and have explained the danger of UXO," he added.
To combat the problem, local authorities and their UXO clearance teams are circulating information about UXO and warning people who live in at-risk areas to be especially careful and not to enter areas that officials have advised are unsafe.
UXO is an obstacle to economic and social development, contaminating land that could otherwise be used for the development of agriculture, industry, tourism and the construction of infrastructure.
Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world. It is estimated that at least 2,000 square kilometers of land still need to be cleared as UXO continues to contaminate vast areas of the country, lying in forests, farmland, villages, school grounds, roads and other populated areas.
