Japan's Shimizu Corporation has announced to start a verification testing project of a field trial, jointly with Vietnamese Government, for full-scale soil washing for remediation of dioxin-contaminated soils. There is still a considerable amount of soil contaminated by the dioxin-containing defoliants sprayed by the US Army during the Vietnam War.
There are 28 highly contaminated areas in Vietnam, including Da Nang, Bien Hoa, Phu Cat Air Bases that used to be the US Army bases.
Soil washing is low-cost soil remediation technology that has a low environmental impact. Shimizu's soil washing is expected to remove more than 90 per cent of dioxin contaminants from soils and to restore close to 70 per cent of the contaminated soil to a reusable condition.
During verification testing, contaminated soil collected from around the air base will be run through its soil washing plant, with the goal of removing 95 per cent of dioxin contaminants.
The Shimizu Corporation and the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning the verification testing project.
Shimizu Corporation vice president Osamu Terada revealed that the company has been engaged in soil cleaning project since 2002. He said, "The contamination by defoliant in Vietnam is a big social issue in history, and Shimizu Corporation has been concerned with this problem. Lately, we achieved being part of the solution for soil contamination problem of Toyosu Market. Including our previous achievement, we have always been thinking to be part of the support for defoliant issues in Vietnam. We are much honoured to have a chance like today to announce the verification testing project for Vietnam."
"As a matter of fact, there are still lots of people in Vietnam suffering from the influence of defoliant. We know about it through "Viet Nguyen and Duc Nguyen". We have deeply known how it had hurt people and the environment in Vietnam. We thought this historical issue is not going to be solved unless trying hard to put a period to it for a brighter future. Our best wish is contributing to creating a better society through this project and taking over greater environment for next generations," he added.