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When Masam entered Yemen with its purely humanitarian mission to protect civilians from the evil of landmines that were choking their existence and confiscating their rights to live, the project’s main priority was and still is the Yemeni people.
But this noble project didn’t neglect the Yemeni ecosystem, as it aimed to be a force of good for humans, land and the environment. This is why Masam started to think and work on demolishing the landmines, to protect the people from their evil, using eco-friendly methods that take safety and the right dealing with the environment into consideration, to make the missions of this humanitarian project free of any bad effects on the environment.
Amid this, the international expert in project Masam Dr. Zauba Alrawi indicated the eagerness of Masam on the safety of everyone in its humanitarian mission by saying: “Project Masam uses always the best and most advanced devices, tools, technologies and methods, in order to clear Yemen of landmines. And when quantities of landmines, explosive devices and unexploded ordnance are found, they are destroyed by many traditional and innovated methods”.
Dr. Alrawi explained Masam’s modern method in clearing the deadly traps from Yemen, by saying: “The latest of these methods that was used recently in destroying and demolishing bombs and landmines, is the TJET500. This method is considered somehow eco-friendly. There are differences between this new technology and the traditional technology used in clearing operations which are based on demolishing the found ordnance by traditional explosives, after we gather them in one place or destroy them where they were found through demolition, using additional quantities of explosives, on top of the explosives that are inside the landmines, shells or unexploded ordnance”.
Dr Zauba went on to explain more by saying: “The traditional demolition of landmines and other kinds of explosives creates three factors of pollution: firstly, the sound factor, which is higher than normal. Secondly, the quakes that come as a result of the high explosive shock, and which is about 8000 meters per second. This equals an earthquake of 5 to 7 on the Richter scale, and it is a very strong earthquake. In addition to the fire resulting from the explosion which will turn the quantity of solid explosives instantly into gases, in huge quantities. So this, will not allow the ecosystem to absorb them. And that is why the concentration of the chemical matter that results from the explosion will be very high in that spot”.
And regarding the safest method to get rid of landmines for the environment, the international expert in project Masam Dr. Zauba Alrawi indicated that “The eco-friendly method to clear landmines and bombs is based on a relative, not absolute friendship with the environment. It is less harmful to the ecosystem, because it leads to burning the explosive matter inside the landmine, like the speed of wood burning, or a little bit more. And this speed allows the ecosystem, such as wind, water and earth to absorb more of the pollutants, and so, the pollutants that result from the incineration will be less, and by huge quantities, than the traditional method”.
Dr. Alrawi indicated the features of this eco-friendly safe technology to clear landmines by saying: “This method is generally free of quakes or sounds, except in some cases where an explosion may occur during the burning operation, but this happens in only about 5 % of the cases, and this is an acceptable percentage. We always try to make it less, by the right usage of incineration and demolition”.
And regarding the causes for using this technology to clear landmines safely, Dr. Zauba said: “We use the TJET500 method in demolishing bombs and landmines, when there are difficulties in the possibility of destroying the landmines and ordnance by the traditional method, and especially when they are in urban areas, or farms, or high impact places, and it is difficult to move the unexploded ordnance from the place where they are found, and anyway, following the principles of Masam, we care a lot about the public safety, and the job safety before we destroy or demolish the landmines. That is why we take all necessary precautions to secure the safety of workers, the people around them, and the safety of the infrastructure, the surrounding buildings, trees or any other facilities, because an explosion may occur during the ignition of the explosives that we want to destroy”.
As for the other methods to demolish landmines, the international expert in project Masam Dr. Zauba Alrawi praised project Masam for its eagerness to adhere to safety measures in all its missions. He said: “In open areas, where landmines are demolished by the traditional methods, all necessary precautions are taken before the demolition of any explosive through respecting the distance requirements and making earth mounds”.
Dr. Alrawi praised also the safe method used by Masam to clear landmines by saying: “The TJET500 method is a safe and advanced method. It was used for the first time in Yemen by project Masam. It was used by the project in the past at limited levels, but now we are using it widely, in every place where we cannot control the clearance of pollutants, or it is very difficult to destroy or demolish ordnance through traditional methods, then we use instantly the TJET500 method. This safe and eco-friendly technique was used widely by Masam’s teams, under the supervision of international experts in this project, who are well versed in this technique, and have a great expertise in this field”.
For his part, the Operations Manager in project Masam Retief Horn reiterated the point of view of Dr. Zauba Alrawi regarding the features of the TJET500 technique for landmine demolition. He said: “As you know, one of the most important traditional methods for landmine demolition is using explosives. The alternative that we are using today is TJET500, which incinerates explosives. This system is non-explosive, which means that there is no explosion in the process, as the operation will be done through only incineration”.
The Operations Manager in project Masam Retief Horn went on to explain his assessment of this technique by saying: “TJET500 is used in special circumstances, when you find explosives in residential areas and you can’t demolish the buildings, as an example, because they can’t be moved, then we use this method in order not to harm the local ecosystem or the buildings where the explosives were found. The only restrictions in this operation is that the incineration will be for only one explosive at a time, which means that we can’t incinerate them as a whole. We can demolish only one explosive, and we can’t do that to many of them with one charge, and here I mean all kinds of landmines. And there is a minimum training to do that, and there must be a training on how to use this method. There should be also a good supervision on the operation, and the physical ability to use the system on landmines and unexploded ordnance”.
The Operations Manager in project Masam explained one important feature of TJET500 by saying: “This technique is used on thick metal matters, and it can penetrate up to 20 millimeters of heavy metals. This system can be used to incinerate any landmine or unexploded ordnance or any explosive device that exists in Yemen”.