APOPO Annual Report 2012

Authors

APOPO

Document Type

Other

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

Centers and Organizations, 2012, Annual Report, APOPO, rat, pouched rat MDR, mine action, mine clearance, tuberculosis

Abstract

In 2012, APOPO’s Mine Action Mozambique program delivered beyond set requirements and exceeded the expectations of the country’s national demining authority. APOPO fi nished its work in the Gaza province and declared it free of known minefi elds a year ahead of the initial schedule of 2013. This excellent achievement was realized due to the successful expansion of the program’s capacity. During the handover ceremony, HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium commended the work in Gaza as “a shining example of how national priorities can be achieved with the right partnerships, sustained effort and, most importantly, sheer human intent”.

The focus in 2012 was to release all known suspected or confirmed hazardous areas in the province of Gaza and return the whole province as mine free to its population. To date APOPO has cleared/released and returned 6,423,361 m. of confirmed hazardous areas and suspected hazardous areas to productive use in Gaza and Manica provinces through the destruction of 2,406 mines, 992 items of unexploded ordnance and 13,025 small arms ammunitions. The release of this land has fostered a safe environment for the people living in Gaza by enabling safe access to water sources, agriculture, cattle grazing, and has further granted the possibility of general development of the previously mine-suspected areas.

Since the completion of its work in the Gaza Province, APOPO has been tasked to work in the Manica, Sofala, Maputo, and Tete Provinces. In 2013 APOPO aims to clear/release over 2,500,000 m. through survey and clearance by applying an effi cient land release methodology.

Since the program has successfully managed to expand its capacity, APOPO Mozambique expects to further progress by increasing the efficiency of survey, clearance, and land release methodology.

In 2013 APOPO will continue to expand and improve effi ciency, and operations will be further streamlined to maximize operational output to a level signifi cantly beyond that of 2012.