Completion of the third phase of underwater UXO clearance of Lake Ohrid
During the third clearance phase supported by the United States of America through ITF, 8.790 m2 of lake`s bottom were successfully cleared by safely removing 2.620 UXO weighing more than 3.7 tons which were later on destroyed.
Based on the successful completion of first two phases of underwater UXO clearance of Lake Ohrid in 2010 and 2011, where more than 16 tons of dangerous UXO were removed and destroyed, the 3rd phase of underwater UXO clearance of Lake Ohrid started on 22 February 2012 and lasted for 28 operational days until 20 March 2012 on wider Ohrid Harbor and Peshtani area. During the third clearance phase, 8.790 m2 of lake`s bottom were successfully cleared by safely removing 2.620 UXO weighing more than 3.7 tons which were later on destroyed. Together in all three UXO clearance phases, Macedonia’s divers have successfully cleared more than 26,4 thousand square meters of the bottom of portions of Lake Ohrid using underwater metal detectors. In addition to that, more than 30,5 thousand square meters of lake bottom was cleared using only visual method of detection. Altogether over 6.600 UXO weighing more than 19,7 tons were safely removed and later on destroyed.
The project has been supported by United States Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA) through ITF and implemented by specialized diving teams for underwater UXO clearance and explosive ordnance disposal specialists employed in Republic of Macedonia Protection and Rescue Directorate (PRD) and supervised by P.E.D. Sava (Slovenia). The implementation of the project was enabled also with the support of water rescue and first medical aid teams from PRD, use of Ministry of Defence premises and control provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.