Welcome to the Rotarians for Mine Action

The Problem of Landmines - Impact

Impact of Landmines

Introduction
The impact of landmines on war-torn societies is devastating. Broadly speaking, they impede
the ability of mine-affected communities to fully recover from conflicts after the cessation of hostilities. Beyond the immediate dangers to life and limb, landmines impose a heavy economic burden on these communities. It costs between $300 and $1,000 to remove each mine and
$100 to $3,000 to provide an artificial limb to survivors of mine accidents. An adult must
replace his or her prosthesis once every three to five years, and a child must obtain a new prosthesis every six months.

Other significant medical, psychosocial, and economic impacts of landmines exist. For instance, mines typically maim or kill the most productive members of a community's work force, and prevent refugees and internally displaced persons from returning to their homes after conflicts have ceased. Furthermore, landmines produce severe environmental consequences. They also impede peace and reconciliation efforts, and they obstruct the delivery of international relief supplies. When addressing the global landmine crisis, it is necessary to "look at the injured
and landmine survivors not just as those who step on a landmine and perhaps have an amputated limb, but as the families and communities that are held hostage to landmines,
" says Jerry White, co-founder of Landmine Survivors Network.

Children
Of the estimated 10,000 civilians killed or maimed every year by landmines, a large number
are children. Many more lose their parents to landmine accidents or have to bear the difficult
responsibility of supporting their families after a family member has been disabled or killed. Children who have been injured by mines are not only a burden on their families and communities, but they are no longer perceived as being productive members of society.

Children are particularly vulnerable to landmines. Their small size places them closer to the
source of a mine's explosion and, consequently, they often sustain more severe injuries than adults. Furthermore, because children are curious and like to play outdoors, they frequently
leave known, safe paths or pick up mines, mistaking them for toys.

In addition, children are responsible for tending cattle and sheep in many societies. They often
follow their livestock into remote areas in search of new grazing lands. In some armed
conflicts, children are used as messengers and porters, or as sweepers to clear minefields.

Children who survive mine accidents require new prostheses every six months in order to
accommodate their growth patterns. In contrast, adults typically require prosthesis
replacement every three to five years. The costs of tending to children's medical needs is often prohibitive - few families
can afford these costs and few countries have adequate supplies of prostheses.

Medical Impact
Landmines have numerous direct and indirect consequences on the health of people living in
mine-affected countries. Mines kill and maim innocent men, women, and children; and they
deny people access to adequate medical services, immunizations, and safe water and food, leading to the spread of diseases. Furthermore, many mine-affected countries do not have adequate health facilities or mined roads and bridges virtually cut off entire populations from existing services.

Mine injuries typically include loss of limbs or eyesight. Mine victims lose significant quantities
of blood, requiring large transfusions. Medical centers in mine-affected countries, however,
often face severe blood shortages and are forced to loosen safety restrictions on blood donations. In turn, these loosened restrictions increase contamination of the blood supply. Furthermore, mine victims that
survive their injuries and initial treatment face a lifetime of dependency on medical services, including regular fittings for prostheses and psychosocial counseling.

Landmines also prevent access to safe drinking water, forcing people to drink dirty,
contaminated water that can cause diarrhea and cholera. In addition, rotting carcasses of
animals killed by landmines turn minefields into breeding grounds for insects, such as tse
flies and malarial mosquitoes, that transmit viruses and bacteria. The deployment of mines
also renders large tracts of fertile farmland unusable, which in turn leads to food shortages
and severe malnutrition. Undernourishment is particularly devastating to the long-term health and survival of children still in their developing years.

The international community works closely with mine-affected countries to implement victim
assistance and rehabilitation programs intended to help mine victims. It also promotes broad health awareness and immunization campaigns to minimize some of the long-term medical consequences of landmines. Funding is a continual problem in providing adequate aid to
victims and mine-affected communities, and damaged infrastructures prevent large numbers
of people, especially those living in remote villages, from receiving adequate medical care even when treatment is available.

Psychosocial Impact
The psychological and social traumas associated with landmines can be as devastating on a
mine-affected community as the immediate physical injuries sustained by mine victims. Men, women, and children all suffer terrible psychological consequences associated with the
presence of landmines and landmine-related injuries. Some victims are permanently disfigured, while others living in mined areas face the constant fear that they may be next.
Many mine victims are ostracized by their communities and not welcomed back after suffering their injuries. Amputated women are less desirable as wives because they are no longer
able to work in the fields, which is their traditional role in many countries. Amputated men
often become drifters. Spouses leave one another for healthier partners. Children are either
left alone when their parents are killed or must assume primary responsibility for caring for
their severely injured parents.

Most governments in mine-affected countries do not have adequate resources to care for and
rehabilitate mine victims or to facilitate their reintegration into society. Accordingly, the burden
of care and responsibility generally falls upon a victim's family. Unfortunately, victims are often
unable to rely on their families for the support they require. Furthermore, because the majority
of mine-affected countries are agrarian societies, disabled persons who are unable to
undertake strenuous physical work in the fields are typically considered a burden by their
family members.

The level of alienation that some mine victims experience is further exacerbated by conditions
of war and famine, which tend to undermine traditional family structures. Mine victims are the most vulnerable members of society, particularly if mine-affected communities are unable to support themselves and disintegrate.

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
The traditional problem of refugees and internally displaced persons that accompanies most conflicts is exacerbated by the use of landmines. Mines are increasingly used to terrorize
civilian populations and channel their movements, resulting in ever-larger numbers of
displaced persons forced to leave their homes. After hostilities cease, the continued presence
of mines on roads, in agricultural fields, and in buildings prevent populations from returning to their homes. This destruction leaves large areas of land uninhabited and uncultivated,
hampering post-war reconstruction efforts. The widespread presence of mines forces
people into urban centers, leading to overcrowding, high unemployment, and severe
health and sanitation problems.

Refugee camps face similar problems. These camps are often makeshift, overcrowded,
and serve as breeding grounds for diseases. Mined roads impede the delivery of
humanitarian aid to these camps. Furthermore, the influx of refugees into neighboring
countries can be a burden on the host country and lead to conflict and tension in
refugee camps and among neighboring countries.

Economic Impact
Most mine-affected countries are agrarian societies whose economies are predominantly
defined by the quality and quantity of their agricultural production. The peoples of these
largely developing countries rely on the land for their food and livelihood. However, the
presence of mines in agricultural fields renders large tracts of fertile soil unusable. Farmers
and peasants are unable to safely cultivate their land and livestock feeding off the land are
frequently killed by mines, constituting grave economic losses for their owners. These cattle, goats, and other farm animals are often villagers' only possessions. Mine contamination
causes local and national economies to suffer and entire populations to become
dependent on external food aid and other forms of international assistance. Mines destroy national infrastructures and impede economic development and reconstruction efforts. Transportation networks, power lines, and water resources are damaged and inaccessible.
The production and distribution of fundamental goods and services is disrupted.
Tourism markets, an important source of income in many countries, suffer greatly.
In addition, mine clearance programs divert financial resources from critical development and reconstruction projects.

The direct and indirect costs of landmine accidents also have a profound economic toll on most mine-affected countries. Medical care is expensive and often unavailable. The costs of surgery,
prostheses, and psychosocial rehabilitation deplete a country's already scarce resources, and
families often cannot afford to pay for necessary treatment. And because many landmine
victims are unable to return to work after their accidents, they frequently become a financial burden on their families and communities.

One of the long-term consequences of landmines is that mine-affected countries become
heavily dependent on the international community for humanitarian and development
assistance. However, funding for international aid projects is not always adequate or evenly distributed among needy countries. Furthermore, where funds or aid are available, relief organizations are frequently unable to reach their intended destinations because
infrastructures, including roads and bridges, have been mined. The inability to provide
adequate food, shelter, medical supplies, and government services perpetuates the cycle of despair endured daily by millions of people worldwide.

Environmental Impact
In addition to the impact on their victims, landmines also have severe environmental
consequences. Mined areas can restrict access to large areas of agricultural land, forcing
populations to use small tracts of land to earn their livelihoods. The limited productive land
that is available is over-cultivated, which contributes to long-term underproduction, as
minerals are depleted from the soil, and the loss of valuable vegetation. Furthermore,
landmines introduce poisonous substances into the environment as their casings erode. Explosives commonly used in landmines, such as trinitrotoluene (TNT), seep into the soil.
The decomposition of these substances can cause many environmental problems
because they are often water soluble, carcinogenic, toxic, and long-lasting.

Landmines also harm the environment when they explode, scattering debris, destroying surrounding vegetation, and disrupting soil composition. This substantially decreases the productivity of agricultural land and increases an area's vulnerability to water and wind
erosion, which in turn can add sediment into drainage systems, adversely affecting water habitats. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) detonations have similar results. One study has shown that the detonation of UXO in the Vietnamese province of Quang Tri has drastically
reduced soil productivity. According to estimates, rice production per hectare has
decreased 50 percent in this area.

The slow degradation of landmines and their devastating impact on surrounding land can
render resources unusable for many generations. The environmental impact of landmines is particularly pronounced when viewed in conjunction with socioeconomic factors and other consequences of landmine contamination.

Peace and Reconciliation
Landmines pose a continuous threat to peace and reconciliation. They prevent
post-conflict reconstruction of war-torn economies and can too easily threaten fragile peace plans. Damaged infrastructures, including roads, bridges, and water supplies, impede efforts
to deliver relief supplies to remote areas. This can perpetuate the cycle of poverty inherent
in so many mine-affected countries, leading to further tension and conflict. Furthermore, these countries often become dependent on external food aid and other forms of international assistance. This dependency can undermine national pride and be exploited by extremist
groups intent on overthrowing national and local governments.

Landmines frequently prevent government access to politically important regions, impeding
efforts to deliver goods and services, and hampering efforts to secure political support among local populations. A government's failure in these two areas often leads mine-affected communities to seek protection and assistance from armed groups, further undermining the national government's
attempts to restore peace to the region. Opposition groups capitalize on this local support to
enable them to mobilize their forces and launch military attacks against government troops.
The presence of landmines perpetuates the militarization of post-conflict societies and undermines the confidence and security needed for successful peace and reconciliation.