De-mining Operations Management Activities

The core objectives for operations remain:

Land Release; and

Productivity

Survey capacity will be applied to ‘re-survey’ existing data in order to reduce the scale of the mine/UXO problem. Area reduction and cancellations will further accelerate the Land Release process.

Clearance operations will be machine heavy – it is likely that the bulk of the Manual capacity will be working in direct support of the machines.

The program will aim to release land for entire communities rather than tackle the work in a piecemeal fashion. All DA's will therefore be addressed within these wider boundaries. The following project areas have been identified:

· Jonglei (JS)

· Bele / Bungu, Juba County, CEQ

· Loka Payam, Lainya County, CEQ

· Kenyi, Lainya County, CEQ

· Yei County, CEQ

· Morobo County, CEQ

That means most of the operations is concentrated in Central Equatoria

Land Release

As stated above - the success of the program will be judged by the routine handover of cleared land, subsequently proven to have had a positive impact in terms of recovery and development in South Sudan.

Efforts will be made by Program and Operational Management to ensure that this remains the emphasis of the program.

Productivity

It is accepted that Manual productivity is down in the past – this is a reflection of the reduced number of barrier minefields and the constraints of National Technical Guidelines safety distances. Team re-organization is therefore being applied and is explained below. The mechanical productivity is almost as high as 200 which is significant achievement bearing in mind the NPA Mine Wolf was on task in Rwanda in the second half of the year. Fortunately, UNMAO requested NPA to work in partnership with the UNMAO Mine Wolf during the months of heavy rains on July to October

During 2009 the program is aiming to land release.

Mechanical operations

Mechanical operations are the cornerstone of program productivity. The program currently has two machines: one Mine Wolf 370 (flail/tiller) and one Bagger (armored excavator with tiller). A Mini Mine Wolf will arrive into the program thin this year.

The Casspir and Rhino Mine-Protected Vehicles (MPVs) will be employed in 4 different activities: 1. Route Survey; 2. Site access / Site preparation. 3. General Survey; 4. Support to Mine Wolf assets – observation and standby recovery/evacuation.

Manual De-mining

The Manual capacity is being re-organized into an 8 team structure. Each team will be staffed by a Team Leader, one 2IC and six de-miners. The manual de-miners are likely to be largely engaged with machine visual follow-up, clearance of those areas that have a confirmed presence of mines and lastly, verification. These operations raise the need for Site Managers in order to achieve the best integration between machines and Manual Teams.

A number of tasks have been identified where the Manual Teams can operate independently but this is dependent on high quality survey information including SAF minefield records.

Survey

The Survey teams will engage in General Survey activities – including Re-Survey – Route Survey and Task Impact Assessment.

EOD capacity will be deployed with Survey Teams wherever possible – or in relative proximity.

Battle Area Clearance and EOD

As with the Manual capacity, the BAC team will be re-organized into two smaller units. The newly-established teams will be staffed by a Team Leader, one 2IC and six operators.

The two EOD teams will work in support of Survey and Clearance operations. In addition they will work on AXO and stockpile tasks as required. A third EOD team will be established as of June 2009.

Learning Practice

My name is Batali Gabriel Modi, I work for Norwegian People's Aid Mine Action Program as an Operations Manager and I'm writing the text to tell the readers about the happenings and how do the program progress in terms of its operations of making the country free from mine so that the area can be safe for settling the displaced/returnees and continue with their agricultural/developmental activities.

To describe my practice in the field of mine action, I have to do the following;

• Assessment of the risks through survey and
  
• sensitization of the community on the dangers and effects of mines in a particular location through mine Risk Education
  
• Possible doing clearance of the danger areas for the safety of the community
• Management of the personnel involved in MRE/Clearance of Mines and UXO's

Improvement of my practice is by working as a group

• understanding our goals/objectives,
  
• respect of individual values,
  
• religion and gender sensitivity etc;

Plan for the finance/logistics and the deployment of the assets for the different tasks.
In general I have to be good in planning the activities on the daily/weekly/monthly and annual basis and good in interpersonal relationship with the communities I'm working in.