TANZANIA-LANDMINES-RATS
An African giant pouched rat sniffs for traces of landmine explosives at APOPO’s training facility in Morogoro on June 17, 2016. APOPO trains the rats to detect both tuberculosis and landmines at its facility. Every year landmines kill or maim thousands of people worldwide. The trained rats sniff for explosive and so are able to detect the presence of landmines far faster than conventional methods which involve metal detection. Metal detection is longer and more laborious because detection equipment picks up all metal traces in the ground including scrap metal. APOPO deploy the trained rats to work in mine affected areas like Cambodia, Lao, Vietnam and Mozambique. To date APOPO has helped countries detect 69,269 landmines which have been destroyed by the countries authorities. Land mine clearance is also crucial to farmers and citizens reclaiming and using land which was previously unavailable due to landmine risk.
CARL DE SOUZA / AFP
