Focus on dog de-mining

Agro is only 18 months old, but already destined for great things. This unsung hero is just one of the 135 dog de-miners working to save the lives of thousands in Afghanistan today. Capable of sniffing out 50 different types of antitank and antipersonnel mines, this four-legged explosive expert and his 21 year-old Afghan handler, Hashmatullah Omarkhill, have just completed months of rigorous training before beginning their actual de-mining work in the field. Speaking on behalf of the pair, Omarkhill told IRIN: “De-mining is a noble cause, and I think we can make a difference.” In a country ravaged by over two decades of war, it is impossible to overemphasise the importance of de-mining activities in Afghanistan. While the UN’s mine action programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) has successfully destroyed 1.6 million land mines over the past 11 years, it estimates another five to seven million land mines and items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) remain in the ground today, killing and maiming on a daily basis. In addition, these same mines have kept thousands from returning to their villages, fields and homes, leaving them permanently displaced and hindering any possibility of an economic recovery there. However, the cost of de-mining is daunting. From 1991 to 2000, MAPA spent US $154 million on its mine-clearance programmes in Afghanistan. Currently employing some 5,000 Afghans, it will take another seven to 10 years to clear what it describes as “high priority” land - agricultural and rural village areas where people wish to return and live. Meeting the challenge head on, MAPA manager in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, Dan Kelly, admits the cost is high and funding has not always been easy. One part of their programme that is becoming increasingly successful - not to mention cost effective, is the dog de-mining programme. Commenting on the programme’s significance, Kelly told IRIN: “The dogs are doing approximately 50 percent of the clearance we are doing in Afghanistan today.” Today the dog de-mining programme is the largest of its kind in the world. Dr Ian McLean, research analyst at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian De-mining, said in his recent essay “What the dog’s nose knows”: “A mine that costs US $5 to buy, 10 seconds to arm and two minutes to lay will take a 12-person team a full day to locate and remove. The cost will be about US $1,000.” He added: “Clearly, any method for reducing that cost must be explored and exploited.” What makes the mine dog programme significant is the ability of the animal to detect the scent of explosives. “Mine detectors detect metal, and many of the mines in Afghanistan have minimal metal content,” a senior technical officer for the programme and veteran MAPA official, Noel Spencer, told IRIN. “Such minimal-metal mines cannot easily be detected by a metal detector,” he explained. “Dogs, however, are used to detect the smell of explosives, which tell us where there are explosives in the ground,” he said. This makes the dogs quicker and more cost-effective. With minimal-metal mines, they are proving more effective, he added. The dogs on average work between eight and nine hours a day, six days a week. The first six hours are spent in the actual minefields, while in the afternoon additional follow-up training is conducted with the handler. The dogs are given rests every 20 minutes, depending on outside temperatures. According to Spencer, when a dog finds an explosive, he becomes agitated and excited, often sitting right in front of the mine - clear indications which the handler recognises immediately. Today, the dog de-mining programme employs 800 people in four regions in Afghanistan, 300 of them in Kabul alone. There are 135 dedicated dog handlers, one for each dog working in the field, the bulk of whom are based in Kandahar, headquarters for the programme’s southern region. In addition, there are 33 mine dog sets (MDS) to support other de-mining NGOs, mainly the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA), an international NGO based in Kabul, which surveys mine areas and prepares maps of the area. Used all over Afghanistan, these MDS consist of one set leader, two dog handlers, two dogs and a vehicle. Paramount in the dog de-mining programme is the Mine Dog Centre (MDC), also in Kabul. Built in 1998, the 165,000 square metre facility in the city’s Tapa Marang Jan district is today a sophisticated training centre for one of the most dangerous jobs around. Of the programme’s 10 dog instructors, four work here. While it takes about four months to train a handler, it takes about 20 months on average to train a dog. Here in addition to a breeding facility, an extra 66 dogs are receiving training in a four-stage process. In the socialisation phase, puppies become familiar with people, places and vehicles. Later they learn direction and obedience skills, followed by a third phase in which the dogs are taught how to identify the scent of explosives. In the fourth phase, known as the pre-deployment stage, they receive lifelike training in one of the many pseudo-minefields established at the facility. During this phase, the dogs are also assigned a dedicated handler, who is paid between US $120 to US $300 per month. Training the dogs in Kabul is relatively inexpensive when compared to similar training overseas. MDC operation assistant Shamsuddin Shams told IRIN it cost about US $1,200 per dog over the 20-month training period, while the similar training of a dog in Germany would cost about US $6,000. Each dog is assigned a number, but all are also given names. Looking through the medical charts with the facility’s full-time veterinarian, one cannot help noticing that in addition to names like Agro, names like Barbara, Alan, Gaby, Betty and Rex are also quite popular. Commenting on his animal colleagues’ work performance, Mumtaz Safi, 34 year-old chief instructor at the centre, told IRIN: “Dogs are good workers, and while they are not a replacement for humans, they are faster and more cost effective.” He added: “The main challenge is to maintain the dog’s skills and alertness to explosives. This requires that, after the dog is deployed in the field, it should be routinely brought back for refresher courses, preferably every two months.” Safi explained that the dogs are trained to sniff out both antitank mines, typically buried 15 to 20 cm below the surface, as well as antipersonnel mines and UXOs, buried 5 to 15 cm deep. Asked to what depths the dogs can recognise the scent of explosives, he said: “We train the dogs to find mines from between 20 and 30 cm below the surface - that’s our goal.” After completing the pre-deployment stage of training, working in the field becomes very much a team effort. According to Spencer, there is one handler per dog and are four dogs in each team. With 12 de-miners to support the dogs, when a dog got an indication, it was moved out, and the de-miner brought in to check it, he explained. Asked if the dogs are used as primary detectors, Spencer confirmed: “Yes, they are. But we always use two dogs - all readings are confirmed.” Only if that second indication is confirmed is a de-miner brought in. “A human will never stand on the ground unless it has been checked by two dogs - that’s our safety margin,” Spencer said. While the programme is well acclaimed, there are limitations to a dog’s abilities, resulting in a call for an international study to better understand what a dog can and cannot do under certain conditions. According to Spencer, there are many factors which can affect a dog’s ability to detect mines, such as the depth of the explosives, the type and make-up of the ground, ground temperature and moisture, as well as wind direction and speed. All these factors can hide and affect how the smell permeates through the ground. “While all these factors affect the dogs, they have yet to be qualified,” Spencer argued. “No one can say that a dog can detect mines at a specific depth,” he said. “We know they detect mines, but we don’t know the actual capability, nor can we say [anything about] its reliability,” he added. To address this challenge, starting in mid-October and lasting over a year and a half, more than 100 dogs will be scientifically tested and filmed in trial mine sites in Afghanistan to determine how the scent moves through the ground. The study will allow international experts to better understand the dog’s true capabilities in helping thousands of people living in mine-affected areas - and how to better utilise “man’s best friend”. At present, there are some 400 dog de-miners working in the world today, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia and other Balkan states. Set to expand further, the programme, if properly supported, will save millions of dollars of the costs of traditional de-mining efforts, not to mention the lives of thousands of would-be victims.