Vol.108–No. 31 • 12 Pages
Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Wednesday, August 2, 2017
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Ag, Oil & Business • 2
Opinion • 4
Sports • 6
Obituaries/Classified • 8
SE area crops under stress by heat, lack of rain A small amount of rain fell in areas of the southeast, as crops, hay land and pastures continue to be under stress with heat and a lack of moisture, according to Sask. Agriculture’s weekly crop report. Many areas of the region have not received much more than two or three inches of rain since April 1, and many crops in these areas are severely heat-stressed and beginning to dry down. Yields will be affected, especially on crops that have been in full flowering during the high temperatures. Topsoil moisture conditions continue to deteriorate with the hot, dry weather. In crop district 2A, which encompasses the Weyburn area, 100 per cent of the cropland, hay and pasture land are very short topsoil moisture, while in crop district 3ASE, in the Radville and Lake Alma areas, 95 per cent of both cropland and hay land are short to very short topsoil moisture. In the past week, the RM of Weyburn received 8 mm of rain, Brokenshell had 5 mm, Wellington had 1.5 mm, Francis had 5 mm, Tecumseh had 4 mm, the RM of Laurier had 5 to 5.6 mm of rain, and The Gap had 5 mm. While significant rainfall is needed in the region to help crops fill and to replenish the topsoil, any rain that comes now will be too late for many southern areas. Crops there are rapidly ripening and have already been severely affected by heat stress and lack of moisture. Haying continues in the region and livestock producers now have about 76 per cent of the hay crop baled or put into silage, with an additional 15 per cent cut and ready for baling. Hay quality is rated as 56 per cent good, 33 per cent fair and 11 per cent poor. Hay yields are lower than average overall and many producers have indicated that there will not be a second cut this year due to a lack of plant growth.
School reunion held for Colgate alumni
Photo — Sabrina Kraft
A large group of Colgate alumni gathered in McKenna Hall for a school reunion that was held on Saturday. The reunion gathered over 230 people at McKenna Hall and marked 48 years since the Colgate School had been closed. In the basement of McKenna Hall, a miniature replica of the Village of Colgate, built by Roy Bell, was displayed.
Jeff McMurdo provides update on United Nations program
Demining war zones in Afghanistan, Sudan By Greg Nikkel The war-torn regions of Afghanistan and Sudan are a long way from Saskatchewan where Jeff McMurdo grew up, but for the past three years, his focus has been working with the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), clearing land mines and other anti-personnel and explosive devices left after war. McMurdo gave an overview of the UN agency’s work to the Rotary Club in Weyburn on Thursday, as he was in Weyburn visiting family along with his daughter Adele, who has just graduated from the London School of Economics. Hosted by his cousin Duane and Laurie Schultz, McMurdo noted he has several family members in Weyburn, including Duane’s mother, his aunt Rose Schultz, his other aunt, Lydia Hewitt and her daughter Diane Hewitt, and his brother Barry McMurdo and his wife Linda. With the United Nations since 2009, McMurdo has worked for the last three years as program manager for UNMAS in Afghanistan and since last October in Darfur, Sudan, as they work to remove all land mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). “The work we do is very foreign to life here in Canada,” he said, noting UNMAS was created 20 years ago after the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, so named as Canada led the campaign for the elimination of land mines. After years of armed conflict in Afghanistan, many fields throughout the country were riddled with land mines, as well as with unexploded ordinances and other ERW, and a humanitarian demining program was put in place to clear all of these explosive devices. This program was the first one of its kind in the world, and today is held up as a model for other countries. So far, the program has cleared 2,125 square kilometres or 35 times the area of Manhattan, including 3,138 firing ranges, and the removal of 744,741 land mines, and 18.2 million items of ERW, clearing explosive hazards from 2,817 communities. The target is to have Afghanistan completely mine-free by the year 2023. The agency estimates about 78 per cent of the country has been cleared, but with ongoing conflicts, there have been more hazards appearing, in particular improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which can be hidden on roadsides and can be very deadly. Once an area is cleared of any military forces, the UNMAS team is the first to go in to clean it up, with a team that enters to do a survey with dogs and detectors. “In the past, it was the military who cleared mines,” McMurdo noted, pointing out that the Afghans developed a very high quality program for mine-clearing, and those residents who are part of the teams that go in to find and destroy the mines are considered heroes by the Afghan people. “It’s quite dangerous work,” said McMurdo, noting in
Afghanistan the dangers not only came from the explosive devices, but from the Taliban, who have attacked the teams on occasion. “It’s often children who get hurt or killed.” “In the past, land mines were the most deadly. Now by far it’s IEDs. These are very difficult to combat,” he added, noting these deadly explosives are often camouflaged and are intended to be anti-tank devices by the side of the road. “It takes a lot of money to do this work. The end of a war is not with a peace agreement. The consequences do
not end until you go in and clear all of the land mines and ERW,” said McMurdo. Since moving to Sudan to run the agency out of Darfur, the work is a little different as land mines are not the hazard, but explosive remnants of war, such as unexploded grenades and bombs. In 2016-17, the agency cleared 269 hazard areas in 190 villages, with 5,455 ERWs cleared and 183,000 residents were given risk education training. Continued on Page 3
Chatting with speaker from United Nations agency
Review Photo 3517 — Greg Nikkel
Rotary Club member Tom Schuck chatted with Jeff McMurdo, following his speech about his work with the United Nations Mine Action Service, at the Rotary Club meeting on Thursday. Jeff was visiting family in Weyburn and area with his daughter Adele, seated in the background. He has worked with the agency for the past three years in Afghanistan and Darfur, Sudan, and he gave an overview of the agency’s work in clearing out land mines and other explosive devices left over from war.