The Republic of Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific with an estimated population of 18´000 people living across the 340. Since 2006, the city of Ngerulmud is the capital of the country. After being under Spanish, German, Japanese, and American administration, Palau became independent in 1981 when it approved a new constitution.
During World War II, the country was used by Japan to support its invasion of the Philippines in 1941. In 1944, the costly Battles of Peleliu and Angaur occurred on the islands, which led to a United States victory and saw their implementation on the islands. But Seventy-three years after the end of World War II, Palau is still contaminated with Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) on land and in the sea. NPA is providing support in developing a national team who can record and plan all tasks via a national database (IMSMA & Google Earth). The aim of NPA Program in Pala is to lead the country with the knowledge and skill to take care of the types of ammunition left over from WWII.
Norwegian People's Aid in Palau
The NPA program in the Republic of Palau started 1st of April 2015. After more than a year of planning and agreeing on a memorandum of understanding, the project began work on a Non-Technical Survey (NTS) in June 2016. The NTS identified 188 hazardous areas and a work plan was drawn up to take care of these tasks ending in February 2020. However, since that date, the work plan has increased by at least 60 additional tasks.
Contamination exists throughout all 16 states of Palau as a result of the Japanese occupation and the American invasion. The types of ammunition found are: projectiles, mortars, rockets, anti-aircraft ammunition, grenades, aircraft bombs, sea mines, beach mines, and torpedoes. In partnership with the National Safety Office, NPA has safely removed and disarmed over 20,000 unexploded ordnance remaining from World War II. Palau relies heavily on tourism including WWII tourism, so all clearance must be carried out with this in mind, for example, limiting the amount of loud demolitions.
- Palau is contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) dating back to World War II.
- Palau consists of about 340 islands.
- Palau was first discovered by the Spanish, and has been occupied by the Germans, Japanese and Americans.
- Firearms were first introduced to Palau in 1783 by Captain Henry Wilson
- Working on former war sites, NPA Palau supports the Japan Association for Recovery and Repatriation of War Casualties (JARRWC) with human remains discoveries.
