In 2020, U.S.-funded demining teams finally cleared all mines and UXO from MM6 and released these lands back to local authorities. The channel also was fully cleared of explosive hazards, cleaned up, and renovated, which restored roughly 27 acres of cultivated land and 1km of access road to productive use. The return of this land has significantly improved the socio-economic situation for the local population, who can again grow crops and use the road to transport them to market.
Sarinamac and Porvor Villages
The soil near Sarinamac and Porvor villages in the Shamsiddin Shohin District is stony, so local residents were forced to travel into the surrounding hills and mountains in search of more fertile land for sowing wheat. However, Russian forces had laid mines in this area in 1993. In 2017, local authorities requested assistance from the TNMAC who in turn, assigned U.S.- and OSCE-funded demining teams to the task. Since then, these teams have cleared over 240 acres.
TNMAC will release the land for safe use later in 2021. One farmer noted in an interview that the community is eager to take advantage of the improved access to this fertile land in order to re-start agricultural activities.
Mine Clearance within Khatlon Region
Since 2017, TNMAC has managed and supervised 10 teams in mine clearance operations along the Tajik-Afghan border. So far their work has resulted in the clearance of 232 acres of land along the border.
The TNMAC has also overseen the safe construction of the border road in the Khatlon Region from the Nuriddin Mahmud Jamoat District to the Shamsiddin Shohin District.
Sarigor Village
Mr. Iskandar Shahbazov, a resident of Sarigor village in the Shamsiddin Shohin District, told demining teams that about 20 families of more than 100 people used to live in Sarigor village before they left due to the border conflict. Upon completion of demining operations, the district government began repairing the roads to support greater agricultural development and spur economic growth in the village. Now, thanks to this landmine clearance project, local residents have begun to return to their land, build new houses, and restart local agriculture and mining activities, providing safe and productive livelihoods for more than 50 local villagers.
Today, PM/WRA continues to work with its implementing partners to reduce these threats both in Tajikistan and across the globe. The United States remains the world’s largest international donor to CWD, providing more than $4 billion to support humanitarian mine action, physical security and stockpile management (PSSM) and associated activities in over 100 countries since 1993.
For more information on how the State Department is strengthening human security, facilitating economic development, and fostering stability through demining, risk education, and other conventional weapons destruction activities, check out our annual report, To Walk the Earth in Safety, and follow us on Twitter @StateDeptPM.
About the Author: Bridgett R. Hess serves as the Assistant Program Manager for South and Central Asia, in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs’ Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement at the U.S. Department of State.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
