The hairy little heroes saving many lives in rural Cambodia
IN RURAL Siem Reap province, rats dare to tread where no person will, as these hairy little heroes place their lives on the line each day for the good of the local community.
The rodents are the most important members of a special team, leading demining efforts in the Kingdom, with their keen sense of smell giving them the ability to sniff out deadly landmines that still litter rural Cambodia.
The rat team rises at 4am, arriv ing at the minefields to start work at t he crack of dawn at 6am. The rodents are able to clear boxes measuring 200sqm each day, according to Lily Shallom, Communications Officer for Apopo, a Belgian non-profit t hat t ra ins African giant pouched rats to detect landmines in Cambodia.
“Once at the minefield, everyone gets their protective gear on and goes on to the minefield. Two rat handlers per rat cover the prepared [200sqm] boxes. The rats are used to quickly identify where the landmines are buried and then they can rest in the shade as they are nocturnal and don’t do well in heat, so they need sleep,” she told The Post.
Apopo – who have successf ully cleared hundreds of thousands of mines in African countries such as Tanzania, Angola and Mozambique since 1997 – have been working with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) in Siem Reap province since 2015.
CMAC now uses rats in their demining efforts and have achieved remarkable results. At the signing of a fresh, yearlong memorandum of understanding between the organisations last month, CMAC said they anticipated they would be able to clear 116km of mined land this year due to the rats.
Apopo calls their trained rodents HeroRATs, with the animals significantly speeding up conventional landmine detection methods using metal detectors.
For instance, a mine detection rat can check the area of a tennis court in just 30 min- utes, a job that would take a deminer with a metal detector up to four days.
“So far, we are operating in Siem Reap and we are a lso starting a new project in Preah Vihear prov ince near t he Thai border. Last year, we cleared more than one million square metres of mined land, i mproving the lives of 2,000 people,” said Benjamin Carrichon, Apo- po’s HeroR ATs project manager in Siem Reap.
He said 35 Tanzanian rats were currently working in Cambodia, finding approx imately 300 landmines and unexploded ordnances last year a lone. This year, Apopo will add 15 African rats – which are chosen over their loca l counterparts as t hey are larger and have a keener sense of smell – to work on t heir new project
Vihear prov ince.
According to Apopo, no rats have ever died as a result of their detection work.
“Since we started our mission [in Africa] 20 years ago, the rats have never failed. They can smell TNT faster and more reliably than detective objects can locate them,” Carrichon said.
In 2017, Apopo opened a visitor centre in Siem Reap town to promote awareness of their work and help gain donations from the public.
“We hope to inform people about landmine issues in Cambodia and across the world. If people want to support our work, you can buy a t-shirt or adopt a rat for one year for $60.
“After you adopt a rat, you will get updates on how your rat is raised and what they are doing on the landmine field,” Carrichon said, adding that they also accept online donations.
Magawa is one such rat up for adoption. The fiveyear-old giant male from Tanzania weighs just over a k ilogram and is currently ser v ing the community in Siem Reap prov ince’s Sre Nouy commune.
Apopo’s Siem Reap v isitor centre is open from Monday to Saturday between 8:30am and 5:30pm. Contact t he centre v ia email (v isitor. center@apopo.org) or phone (08159 9237). in Preah