Edition 2.1 - March 2020 DOWNLOAD
Introduction
Explosive Ordnance (EO) contamination in Lebanon has accumulated over different phases of civil war, occupation, and external aggression that has littered the country with unknown numbers of landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and sub-munitions that have an extensive adverse impact on the lives of many thousands of people. Acknowledging this, the Government of Lebanon (GoL) issued its National Mine Action Policy in 2007 through which it assumed responsibility to help the country rid itself of the economic, humanitarian, social, and environmental impact of all EO contamination. As highlighted in the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), estimates of the percentage of sub-munitions that do not detonate on impact are the 30-50% of the submunitions from a single cluster munition strike fail to detonate as designed. The percentage may be higher than the global average in Lebanon. At a conservative estimate, at least 10% of all other munitions used during conflict fail to function as designed and become unexploded ordnance (UXO). Other hazards include abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO). To minimize risks left by all explosive ordnance (EO) in former conflict areas in Lebanon, this NMAS provides standards focused on locating, identifying and disposing of all EO other than mines. In this context, Battle Area Clearance (BAC) refers to the planned and systematic search, detection, identification, field evaluation, and final disposal of all explosive hazards in areas where the presence of EO other than mines has been detected. Similar to other clearance operations, and in compliance with NMAS 09.10, which specifies clearance requirements, NMAS 09.11 provides standards for BAC clearance to ensure that such operations result in land released to its end-users with confidence that it is free from EO while maintaining the highest practicable levels of efficiency. This level of confidence is achieved by the diligent application of a thorough Land Release process involving the application of Quality Management (QM) principles.