EOD specialist says Taro Township a heavily contaminated area and full of munitions

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) specialist says the Taro Township area is heavily contaminated with Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs).

This is after EOD experts have safely removed a total of 28 UXOs so far from the Taro airstrip runway. UXOs found ranging from projectiles, mortar bombs and bombs. The latest bomb discovered at the Taro air strip weight about 15 kilogram.

Sergeant (Sgt) Selestin Pelleni of the EOD team who is in Taro said the Taro Township is under category A which means “danger zone or heavily contaminated area full of munitions”.

Sgt Pelleni said other places in the country labelled as category A are, some parts of Guadalcanal, Russell' Islands, parts of Western Province which include Shortland Islands.

Mr Pelleni said Choiseul people living in Taro Township they are living and building homes on the bombs. They must be cautious of their environments.

Please report any sighting of any UXOs to the EOD team. We work together to clear our place from these dangerous munitions. Do not touch, remove or tamper with any UXOs, Sergeant Pelleni adds.

UXOs were designed for two purposes only. They were design to kill and destroy so do not try and do anything with bombs. It will kill or destroy your properties.

The EOD team will render safe those UXOs found on the Taro air strip and we kindly ask the people living in the Taro area to work together with the team to avoid any casualties during render safe operation.

If sightings of any UXOs do liaise with the EOD team at Taro or call Taro police on phone 63199 or call police free toll line on phone 999.