VietNamNet Bridge - Illegal sand exploitation is occurring on rivers throughout the country, according to Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, head of the Southern Ecology Institute, and the Southern Chief Representative of the Vietnam River Network.

Long, who has made fact-finding trips to river basins,said that most rivers have been used for sand and gravel exploitation. The dredging is especially serious on the rivers of Lo, Chay, Hong, Gam, Thach Han in the north and Dong Nai, Hau and Tien in the south. 

Residents fear their houses and gardens will disappear one day.

“The uncontrolled sand exploitation is the major reason behind riverbank erosion,” Long said.

However, landslides are not the only danger people are facing. 

“Rivers all have their own ecosystems which determine the quality of water and environment. The uncontrolled sand mining will kill the ecosystems,” Long warned.

The exploitation will also affect the formation of ecosystems at estuaries, through which river fresh water flows into the sea. They are influenced from tides and have a mixture salty and fresh water.

Estuary ecosystems are among the richest ecosystems, but they can easily be affected by pollution, the changes of the water’s physicochemical indicators and sediment exploitation.

The Ca Mau, Tra Vinh and Bac Lieu rivers’ months have suffered from subsidence because of the lack of silt and sand sedimentation in the riverbed.

Long said: “The destructive sand exploitation on rivers is really a big challenge to environment sustainable development. This is threatening the life of the people in the coastal areas.”

Even those who exploit sand under licenses granted by local authorities, only focus on exploiting as much as possible to optimize their profits, while they do not care about the local ecosystems and existence of the vegetation cover along the river banks.

Long has called on state management agencies to apply drastic measures to stop the uncontrolled sand exploitation. 

He believes that it would be better to halt licensing new sand exploitation projects for now, or at least not allow local authorities to grant licenses to exploitation projects, because the mining will influence many different localities.

He went on to say that local authorities had not fulfilled their task of taking control of the implementation of the licensed projects.

“They close their eyes on illegal sand exploitation. And in many cases, they collude with illegal miners. Their wrongdoings have made people homeless, landless. And they lost their livelihood,” he noted.

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