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A Vietnamese soldier stands guard at a dioxin contaminated area at Bien Hoa airbase, where the U.S. Army stored the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, in Bien Hoa city, outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Wednesday. | REUTERS
Episode 2446 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the US agreeing to help Vietnam cleanup an old Vietnam War Agent Orange dump at Bien Hoa. The featured story comes from The New Delhi Times and was titled: US Pays to Clean Up Agent Orange on Vietnam War Anniversary. It was submitted by the NDT Bureau.
According to the New Delhi Times: The United States earlier this month announced a contract worth up to $29 million to clean up dioxin contamination at the Bien Hoa Air Base in southern Vietnam, near Ho Chi Minh City, a consequence of U.S. use of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
A. Grubbs, the Hanoi-based Vietnam mission director for the U.S. Agency for International Development reportedly said this about the development: “This announcement represents the United States’ commitment to our partnership with Vietnam. This contract will complete critical preparatory work, paving the way for the treatment phase of the project.”
USAID said it finished a similar project in 2018 to clean up Agent Orange and other chemicals that it sprayed around Da Nang in central Vietnam to defoliate the jungle used by communist forces to hide during the war. It said compared to Da Nang, Bien Hoa would require dealing with four times as much soil that has been contaminated with the chemicals, still linked to birth defects.
A Vietnamese corporation, VINA E&C Investment and Construction JSC, has been awarded the contract to prep the soil and get it ready for treatment over a period of four years. Vu Van Liem, general director of VINA E&C Investment and Construction JSC said, “We look forward to applying our specialized expertise to meet the project’s high safety and health requirements and technical specifications, and contribute to the overall success of the project.”
Listen to episode 2446 and discover more about the US agreeing to help Vietnam cleanup an old Vietnam War Agent Orange dump at Bien Hoa.
