Posted on September 11, 2024
KANDAL PROVINCE, Cambodia – “If the riverbank collapses again, I don’t know what to do. I will have to find new land again,” said 48-year-old vendor Kong Srey An, whose rural wooden house had fallen into the Mekong River in recent years in Cambodia.
Srey An, who couldn’t recall the exact date of the collapse, believes sand dredging nearby caused her house to disappear.
“If it collapses again, I am not sure where to live, maybe [I have] nowhere to go. That’s all I have here.”
Srey An’s house fell into the Mekong River in Kandal province’s Arey Ksat city, 15 kilometers east of capital Phnom Penh, in recent years and had asked a monk chief of a local Buddhist pagoda to live on one of his lands, just some meters away from the river.
Srey An is among 10 families in the Saraka Keo commune whose riverbanks have collapsed in recent years.
“While they dredged for sand, we had riverbanks collapsing. Now they are not pumping anymore, so it has stopped collapsing,” Srey An said, sitting on a wooden bed, surrounded by greenery and clothes hanging out to dry.
About two years ago in May, local reports said two schoolgirls drowned when a riverbank collapsed in Kandal province, again believed to have been caused by sand dredging.
These tragedies come amid the rapid growth of Cambodia’s construction boom, which has fueled the demand for sand. Chinese investment has driven the construction sector, while sand has also been exported to Vietnam and Singapore.
It is unclear exactly how much sand is exported to these two countries and there have been questions about the accuracy of reports and data.
For instance, Cambodian enterprises have reportedly exported about 23.6 million tonnes of sand to Vietnam since 2021, according to Vietnam News. As far as Singapore is concerned, Cambodia reported sand exports amounting to 2.8 million tonnes, but Singapore reported 72.8 million tonnes in imports for the same year — indicating a significant discrepancy in numbers.
Sand mining became largely unregulated from the years 2011 to 2016, resulting in huge differences between reported sand sales from Cambodia and actual purchases by importing countries.
LIFE BY THE MEKONG. A woman sits on the porch of the Mekong River in Kandal province, Cambodia, September 6, 2024.
The lax regulation of this economic activity led to a ban on sand exports in 2017, but data suggests that exports might have continued despite the ban. it was lifted three years later, in 2020, but the discrepancies in reported export figures for that year persisted.
Over 11 million cubic meters of sand were extracted annually in 2020 and 2021.
ECONOMY. Tuk tuks and cars are parked near the Mekong River in Phnom Penh, September 6, 2024.
Addressing concerns
Following outcries by environmentalists amid recent collapses, the government has formed a new Sand Resource Management Committee on August 31 to address concerns about illegal sand dredging and its environmental and social impacts.
Cambodia currently has 49 active sand mining licenses, covering 2,320 hectares of the Mekong and Bassac rivers, according to a news report by Mongabay. In the first half of 2022 alone, more than six million cubic meters were mined, according to Mongabay.
The committee, established by a government decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Manet on August 31, aims to monitor all sand dredging activities and take unspecified legal action against those operating illegally.
Environmentalists have welcomed the move, but emphasize the need for transparency and public involvement.
NEAR THE MEKONG RIVER. A woman sits at her home near the Mekong River in Kandal province, Cambodia, September 6, 2024.
Heng Kimhong, president of the Cambodian Youth Network Association, said that there has been inconsistency in terms of money for sand exports provided by the government and international agencies, raising concern about revenue transparency.
“Sand dredging has been ongoing for years, and only now has the government formed a committee,” he noted. “While we welcome this step, we remain concerned about the effectiveness of other existing committees.”
Kimhong said there is a need for a clear delineation of responsibilities between ministries involved in collecting and publishing sand export data to ensure transparency.
“We urge the government to disclose the revenue generated from sand exports and how it will be utilized,” Kimhong said.
Ung Dipola, Director-General of the Department of Mineral Resources at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, didn’t answer multiple requests for comment.
Speaking with Mongabay, Dipola defended sand mining in the Mekong, saying that only 4% of the river is currently being dredged.
“We love our country, we love and care for our people, just let me know if you know of any development [that goes ahead] without touching just a little bit of the environment or society,” Dipola told Mongabay.
For Srey An, who has four adult children and three grandchildren, the impact of sand dredging has resulted in economic hardships that bite her and others in Cambodia, in addition to worries about future sand dredging that might cause her house to disappear again.
“In recent months, I have not made any money. I’ve also become sick,” Srey An said.
“The riverbanks collapsed many years ago and I have asked the commune office to move my house inland. This is not my land, this belongs to a pagoda monk chief. I asked them to live here…. My livelihood is bad. When it rains, it goes in every direction in my house. I am poor, I don’t even have rice to cook.”
