Almost a quarter of Ukraine’s agricultural land is mined: 83 years to clean up
5 September 12:36
Almost a quarter of the country’s total agricultural land area – 9.85 million hectares – is unavailable for safe use due to mine contamination. This is evidenced by the results of the audit of the Accounting Chamber, published by the institution, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The auditors examined the effectiveness of humanitarian demining of agricultural land in 2023-2024 and found that, at current rates, it would take 83 years to completely clean up the contaminated areas.
So far, only 0.08% of the total area of the contaminated territory has been demined in accordance with national standards and returned to use. Such a slow pace of surveying and demining agricultural land demonstrates the magnitude of the challenge Ukraine faces.
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Results of demining in August 2024
Despite systemic problems, land clearance work continues. According to the Ministry of Economy, in August 2024, mine action operators were able to clear 220 hectares of agricultural land.
The cost of these works amounted to 13.2 million hryvnias, which is approximately 60 thousand hryvnias per hectare of cleared land. This figure demonstrates the high cost of the demining process and the need for significant financial resources to solve the problem.
The overall achievements of the state compensation program look more optimistic: more than 3,416 hectares of land have already been cleared thanks to this initiative. Since the start of the program, 80 contracts have been signed to clear 14,432.6 hectares of land for a total of UAH 856.3 million.
An important step was also the adoption of a number of decisions for the development of the mine action sector. In particular, eight types of mine action activities have been identified that comply with the relevant law and are classified by NACE, which creates new business opportunities in this area.
Systemic problems of demining according to the Accounting Chamber’s findings
The auditors of the Accounting Chamber, investigating the effectiveness of humanitarian demining of agricultural land in 2023-2024, found serious systemic shortcomings that hinder the process of clearing the territories.
Coordination problems
One of the most serious problems, according to the auditors, is the duplication of powers and lack of coordination between the responsible authorities in the field of demining. Currently, both the security and defense forces and humanitarian organizations are carrying out land demining in Ukraine, but these processes are not properly coordinated.
In addition, there is a problem of parallel demining planning frameworks, which leads to inefficient use of resources and duplication of efforts. The absence of a unified reporting system on demining carried out by the SES and certified operators makes it difficult to monitor the process and plan further actions.
Human and technical problems
A serious obstacle is the lack of personnel and equipment in key agencies. The Ministry of Defense is only 79% staffed, and the State Emergency Service is only 68% staffed. Technical support is only 55-75% of the required level.
Private operators also face limited resources, which further slows down the demining process. This situation requires urgent measures to train personnel and provide them with the necessary equipment.
Financial and bureaucratic obstacles
Another problem is the management of donor funds. Donor support funds go directly to the operators, and the government does not have full information on how they are spent, which complicates planning and coordination of efforts.
The mechanism of compensation for humanitarian demining costs for farmers proved to be too complicated and bureaucratic. As a result, during the audit period, there was virtually no actual clearance and return of land to circulation under this mechanism.
At the same time, the Ministry of Economy reports that the compensation program covers 100% of the cost of demining agricultural land, and an application can be submitted exclusively through the State Agrarian Register. The list of professions for which a voucher for training can be obtained has also been updated to include the profession of deminer (explosive ordnance disposal operator).
In order to eliminate the identified shortcomings, the Accounting Chamber provided a number of recommendations to the audited entities, the implementation of which should significantly improve the efficiency of the demining process and accelerate the return of land to safe use.
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