The 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah has left its legacy since summer 2006, and today, around one million cluster bombs, up until February 7, 2007, still litter the south of Lebanon.

According to Dalya Farran, the media officer at the UN Mine Action Coordinator Center in South Lebanon, 12 or 15 more months will be needed to clear South Lebanon from the cluster bomblets. But, the major challenges deminers have been facing since the end of the summer war is the fact that no maps marking the areas are available.

"The most important issue is that the UN has not received the maps revealing the location of landmines in South Lebanon, neither maps nor type information, nor the quantity of the cluster bombs dropped in the war of summer 2006," said Dalya Farran, the center’s media and post clearance officer.

The center also supervises other demining groups, and has estimated that more than 100,000 bomlets have been cleared since the war, almost ten percent of the contaminated areas. As of February 7, 2007, 842 contaminated areas have been located in South Lebanon.

Cluster bombs come from a large canister dropped from a plane, and as it is dropped, cluster bombs are scattered over a large area. These bomblets come in different sizes. Many of them are small, making it easily accessible to children to pick up, which leads to a loss of an arm, a leg, or the death of the person.

Another 153,000 items of unexploded ordnance, other than the cluster bombs, also contaminate south Lebanon, posing direct threat on residents, farmers, and soldiers from the UNIFIL and the Lebanese army, who deployed in South Lebanon under UN resolution 1701.

Until today, people are either disfigured or killed by unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs, as well as mines. Many fields are still covered with bomblets, and some of these fields were planted by mines placed before the Israeli withdrawal in 2000. Also, according to the UN, around 40 per cent of these cluster bombs fail to detonate upon first impact, and this turns them into landmines lingering just below the surface of the ground, especially after the winter season, with the rain sinking objects into the land and mud.

Since the end of the summer war in 2006 and until January 31, 2007, there have been 216 reported injuries and fatalities, according Farran, and they keep rising every day. Out of the total number of injured and dead, thirty are deminers, twenty Lebanese soldiers, four Belgian UNIFIL soldiers, and another six deminers from other contractor companies.

For deminers, it is a race against time, because the scattered unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs pose threat on people who are keen to return to their lands, such as farmers, who have undergone major loss in both crop and assets during the summer war. Families are also eager to return to normal life.

Lebanon’s National Demining Office is currently working with the Mine Action Coordination of South Lebanon, under the supervision of the UN Mine Action Service. The clearance and information gathering is also carried out by the Lebanese Army, the UNIFIL, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and firms contracted under the UN Mine Action Service. The United Arab Emirates has also provided teams and equipment to complete the landmines clearance in areas contaminated before and after the summer 2006 offensive.

The large numbers of unexploded bombs, artillery shells, and bomblets were dropped by Israeli warplanes during the last days of the 34-day conflict with Hezbollah. The war ended on August 14, 2006 under a UN-brokered ceasefire. Cluster bombs have been highly condemned by UN and human rights groups.