Sri Lanka is a 65,000 square kilometer island.
Local tax payers had spent 3.4 billion rupees and foreign donors spent a further 5.4 billion to clear the land mines, totally 9 billion rupees since the bloody conflict ended in May 2009.
In addition to deliberately laid mines and improvised explosive devices, there are also UXOs (unexploded ordnance) in many areas where deadly battles raged between the military and Tamil Tiger separatists.
The finance ministry estimates over 640 villages had been endangered by buried explosive devices.
De-mining is a high risk, time consuming, costly operation which involves skilled manpower and sophisticated equipment.
Most conventional armies have maps and patterns on record which can fast track de-mining but the process gets tedious when mines are indiscriminately laid with no records.
The finance ministry additional human and financial resources are needed to make Sri Lanka mine free by 2020.Along with Sri Lanka's military eight other local and foreign organizations are removing mines. Foreign partners include Japan, US, Australia, EU, Canada and Switzerland.
Minefields have blocked access to fertile land, restricted freedom of movement, agriculture and commercial activity in the north and east and prolonged the resettlement of displaced people.
Sri Lanka is under pressure to resettle displaced civilians and restore livelihoods in the north and east.
Out of 295,136 refugees displaced by the conflict only 6022 remains to be resettled by end April 2012, the finance ministry said.
