NOTWe estimated 37 million tonnes of debris, or around 300 kilos of debris per square meter” in the Gaza Strip, which before the war was very densely populated and urbanized, explained Pehr Lodhammar, an official with UNMAS, the UN agency responsible for mine clearance.
Starting from the hypothesis of the use of a hundred trucks, it “would take 14 years to clear”, he stressed during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva.
He insisted that unexploded ordnance was mixed in with the rubble, greatly complicating the task.
Pehr Lodhammar believes that “at least 10%”munitions fired in a conflict do not explode and are therefore a lasting threat for the populations and the teams responsible for searching the rubble to recover the bodies of victims as well as for the workers responsible for clearing up.
He also mentioned a recent meeting in Amman, with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and NGOs, devoted to the best way to manage this debris mixed with explosives.
It’s about “to prepare ourselves for what should eventually happen and for an intervention in Gaza”. The head of UNMAS speaks from experience. He already handled the same type of problem in Iraq.”but on a smaller scale”.
According to him, “65% of destroyed buildings are residential buildings” on the narrow Palestinian territory.
