Singapore Accused of Sand Smuggling
RT News Video
Singapore Extends Its Coastlines With Illegally Dregded Sand From Neighbourings States
Excerpt from Dredging Today
Sand barge. Photograph: © SAF – Coastal Care
Singapore, one of the world’s most prosperous and fastest growing economies, is being accused of expanding its coastline with illegally dredged sand from neighboring states.
Singapore has been importing sand for years and its territory has increased by over 20% in the last half century, but sand imports are now threatening the regional ecosystem and harming its economy.
Professor Chou Loke Ming from the Biological Science Center of the National Institute of Singapore says, “We have been taking sand from our hills and then, when there are no more hills left, we have been dredging sand from sea beds, and now most of it is been imported from neighboring countries.”
Singapore is today the world’s largest importer of sand, literally the foundation of the tiny state’s extraordinary economic growth.
But with other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, banning sand exports, reclaiming more land has become a difficult task for this tiny island city-state. At least legally, there are some accusations that sand smuggling is making up the shortfall.
Critics say it is a dirty business, with illegal imports of sand coming from poorer neighboring countries…
Singapore Sand Export Threaten Cambodia, in Coastal Care
Sand Piracy: More About Singapore, in Coastal Care
Singapore Accused of Launching a Sand War, in Coastal Care
The Damages Caused by Singapore’s Insatiable Thirst For Sand, in Coastal Care
Global Witness, Shifting Sands, Singapore
Shifting Sand: how Singapore’s demand for Cambodian sand threatens ecosystems and undermines good governance
