Sand Thieves Are Eroding World’s Beaches For Castles Of Cash

The pillaging of sand is a growing practice in the world. Taken by hand, three or four meters deep in the Maldives archipelago, or transported on a donkey, or sucked up by huge sand boats in Asia, coastal sand mining, authorized or unlawful, is exploding.

Sand mining: The High Volume – Low Value Paradox

Given the rapid rate of urbanization and the current rate of extraction of sand for construction, and the silent devastation left behind in its wake, the modern process of assigning value, economic or otherwise to this resource seems sadly inchoate and needs to be re-evaluated… By Kiran Pereira.

Land Lost to Sand Dredging

Cambodia has struggled with the environmental cost of sand mining from its rivers, and villagers who live along the banks of the Mekong River say that the land on which their houses are built is collapsing into the river because of the dredging.

Sand For Sale: Environment Ravages

The “king Of Koh Kong” has defied an order endorsed by the Cambodia’s Prime Minster to halt his controversial and environmentally damaging sand dredging activities on the Tatai river in Koh Kong.

Lost Lands: Mining the Mekong – the South China Morning Post Films

Drone image of Sand Mining on the Mekong River (screenshot from film Lost Lands: Mining the Mekong by Andy Ballor South China Morning Post Films).

Cambodia’s appetite for sand has exploded as construction continues to fuel economic growth in the capital Phnom Penh. But as the thirst for sand grows, so does the uncertainty over the future of the river. Two families who rely on the river for a living share their stories of how sand dredging is causing pain and concerns for the future.

The Environmental Cost of Land Reclamation

The stories exposed the powerful commercial interests behind reclamation in China’s coastal regions over the previous decade and the widespread damage they had done to marine ecosystems.