A construction boom in Cambodia is raising the demand for sand pulled from the Mekong River — which some 60 million people rely on. 'If they come back and dredge like last time,' a local farmer says, ' all the houses on the river will fall down.'
A view of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, from the riverfront of a temple complex outside the city.A view of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, from the riverfront of a temple complex outside the city.Some 60 million people rely on Southeast Asia's Mekong River for their sustenance. But the Mekong is under threat.that sharply reduce the water flow and sediment downstream, other countries along the river share some of the blame.
"The benefit from sand dredging is both direct and indirect," says Yos Mony Rath, head of the Cambodian government's Mineral Resources Department."The sand used in the construction industry helps create jobs and grows the economy. And dredging the river helps make it wider and deeper for boat traffic."
Environmentalists point out that the capital has filled in many of its lakes, including the Boeung Kak, to make way for condos and coffee shops, hampering Phnom Penh's handling of runoff from the annual monsoons andWhat's more, taking too much sand from the Mekong is also causing problems for the people who live alongside it.
Bean Boren stands in front of rubble from the bits of the temple complex that fell into the river, as a sand dredger and barge float nearby.Bean Boren stands in front of rubble from the bits of the temple complex that fell into the river, as a sand dredger and barge float nearby.In the sand miners' eagerness to extract the sand, not even the dead are safe. Just ask Bean Boren, a monk at the Kdey Takoy temple complex on the Mekong, just outside Phnom Penh.
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