MCPAMine Clearance Planning Agency

Afghan humanitarian mine actionSince 1990

Field storiesCleared · December 2022

Clearance · Pasab village · Zhari district · Kandahar Province

Pasab, before and after

One hazardous area, photographed by the team leader of demining team MCPA-DT-03: before clearance in November 2022, after clearance in December, and again the following March.

Numbers describe clearance in square metres. Photographs show what it means for a particular piece of ground. These were taken by the team leader who cleared this hazard, as part of the team's record.

  1. Flat, bare brown ground under a pale sky, with the outline of the hazardous area drawn over it in red.
    The hazardous area before clearance, its boundary marked in red on the team's photograph.
  2. The same bare ground after clearance, dotted with small white markers, with a red-and-white sign in the centre.
    After clearance, with the team's markers still in place.
  3. A green crop growing across the field, with a freshly worked and irrigated strip of ground in the foreground and hills on the horizon.
    The following spring: crops growing, and ground being worked and irrigated.
Irrigation water standing in newly dug channels at the edge of a green field.
Irrigation channels on the cleared land, 19 March 2023. MCPA field photograph.

What the community did with it

Once MCPA had cleared the hazardous areas, local people began to cultivate the newly safe land, planting crops and improving what they could grow. The cleared land also gave space to build houses, providing shelter for returnees and families without homes.

Source

MCPA photographic record, "Kandahar project photos", hazard in Pasab village, Zhari district; photographs by the team leader of MCPA-DT-03. Project details from MCPA's project register (project 21-SPMWRA21-GR-3049). Exact coordinates recorded on the original photographs are not published here.