Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Mining · Cambodia and Vietnam · 2007–2026

Mekong sand mining (Cambodia, Vietnam)

Nature's voice · report
About 65 km of my rivers were polluted.
Share of delta channels eroding.
Did nature suffer? Yes. Harm is on record. Disputed
People
  • 1,808 people were displaced or listed for relocation.
    Houses lost to rivers or the sea in the delta, 2018–2020; more than 600 ha of coast lost a year.
What the record lacks: 3 none on record · 4 insufficient · 6 disputed · 1 unclear See the gaps
Accounts of the harm differ
Does dredging harm the river and its banks?
  • Government and regulators Cambodian Ministry of Mines: Dredging might benefit biodiversity. VOD English
  • Government and regulators Ung Dipola, Director General of Mines: Erosion does not come from sand; only 4% of the river is dredged. Mongabay
  • Researchers Hackney et al. (University of Exeter): Sand supply to the delta is about 6.18 Mt a year against about 50 Mt extracted; bed lowering destabilises riverbanks. University of Exeter ORE (Hackney et al., Nature Sustainability)
How much of the delta's bed erosion and salinity increase is due to sand mining?

Sand is dredged from the Mekong in Cambodia and Vietnam for construction, roads and land infill. Researchers estimate extraction far above natural replenishment; records of volumes, licences and exports differ between declarations and measurements.

24 → 59 Mt a year estimateSand extracted on the Cambodian Mekong, 2016 and 2020 (satellite estimate)
Satellite-based estimate (Hackney et al. 2021). Cambodia's mines ministry declared more than 13 million cubic metres for 2020, about one third of the satellite figure of about 39 million cubic metres.

Status As of July 2026: a Science Advances study estimated extraction in the Vietnamese delta at 6–15 times natural replenishment in 2017–2021; no court case against sand-mining companies was found.

What?
Extraction of sand from the Mekong in Cambodia and the Vietnamese delta at multiples of natural replenishment, with erosion, home loss and weak volume records. NTU Singapore (Science Advances study)
Where?
Mekong and Bassac rivers in Cambodia; the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, notably An Giang and Dong Thap; Koh Kong coast; Phnom Penh. NTU Singapore (Science Advances study)
When?
2007–2026; Cambodian extraction rising from 2016 to 2020; Vietnamese delta data for 2017–2021. NTU Singapore (Science Advances study)
Who?
Gained
  • Licensed sand companies — Extract under provincial licences and declare volumes and tax themselves; official price 56,000–80,000 dong per cubic metre against a market price from 280,000. Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
  • Licence holders on the Cambodian Mekong — Global Green, Jin Ling Construction (linked to the Prince Group) and Sophearoth Aphivath were named as licence holders. Mongabay
  • Singapore — Land area grew from 581.5 to 725.7 square kilometres between 1960 and 2019 using imported sand.
Lost
Harmed
  • Residents of Mekong riverbanks — Five families in Prey Veng lost homes and fields in August 2024; a resident of My Hoi Dong commune in An Giang, aged 60 in 2022, lost his home around 2018 and received 100 million dong (about USD 4,300) and two plots. Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
Why?
Sand supplies expressways, construction and land infill; Vietnamese delta expressways need 54 million cubic metres and licensed capacity has fallen. VnEconomy
How?
Dredging under provincial licences, with volumes self-declared by companies, and illegal night dredging. Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

In the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, a study published in Science Advances in July 2026 by a team at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) estimated that an average of 48 million cubic metres of sand a year was extracted from the delta in 2017–2021, 6 to 15 times natural replenishment, leaving a sediment deficit of more than 250 million cubic metres. It reported that about 65 per cent of channels were eroding and the riverbed was lowering by about 10 centimetres a year, and attributed 25 to 30 per cent of bed erosion and 16 to 30 per cent of the annual increase in salinity to sand mining, using a counterfactual model. A separate field-measurement study reported extraction of 38 million cubic metres in 2015 and 47 million in 2020, above official declarations. A study of the licensed share found that licensed mining explained 27.7 per cent of net annual bed incision in 2005–2017 and 35.3 per cent in 2017–2020.

Provincial authorities license the extraction. Eco-Business reported in 2022 that five provinces had issued licences for 114 million tonnes over a decade, that An Giang had 11 companies with capacity of 5.3 million cubic metres a year, that companies declared volumes and taxes themselves and that illegal night dredging was widespread. It reported an official sand price of 56,000 to 80,000 dong per cubic metre against a market price from 280,000 dong, and that Vietnam's sand exports in 2011–2020 were recorded at USD 212 million in its own records and USD 705 million in buyers' records. Demand also comes from the state: delta expressways needed 54 million cubic metres, the Can Tho–Ca Mau expressway needed 15 million, and in December 2023 only a quarter of its needs could be supplied; the price rose from 320,000–330,000 dong in 2023 to 600,000–800,000 in 2025 and contractors imported sand from Cambodia. Eco-Business reported 1,808 houses lost to rivers or the sea in 2018–2020 and more than 600 hectares of coast lost a year, with 5,300 houses in An Giang and 6,400 in Dong Thap awaiting relocation. Relocating 20,000 houses in five provinces was put at 5 trillion dong (USD 215 million); the state had set aside 12 trillion dong (USD 516 million) for erosion works since 2016.

In Cambodia, satellite imagery showed extraction on the Mekong rising from 24 million tonnes in 2016 to 59 million tonnes in 2020, while the mines ministry declared more than 13 million cubic metres. Mongabay reported in 2022 that 49 licences covering 2,320 hectares existed on the Mekong and Bassac, that 2020 extraction was 16 times natural replenishment, and that an export ban imposed in 2017 was lifted in 2020. The Director General of Mines, Ung Dipola, said erosion did not come from sand and that only 4 per cent of the river was dredged. Mongabay named licence holders including Global Green, Jin Ling Construction (linked to the Prince Group) and Sophearoth Aphivath. Global Witness reported in 2010 that about 796,000 tonnes of sand a month went from Koh Kong to Singapore, valued at USD 28.7 million at source and USD 248 million in Singapore, with licences linked to companies tied to two ruling-party senators, Ly Yong Phat and Mong Reththy, and no environmental assessment or consultation with villagers on record. After the export ban, Mekong sand began to fill wetlands in Phnom Penh. In August 2024 five families in Prey Veng lost homes and fields to the river; the district governor said a company had a contract with the provincial administration, and a Sand Resources Management Committee was set up afterwards.

The dredged sand has fed land reclamation. Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 square kilometres in 1960 to 725.7 in 2019, and a UN-sourced figure put its sand imports at 517 million tonnes over 20 years. In Phnom Penh the government leased the 90-hectare Boeung Kak lake for 99 years for USD 79 million in 2007, and the lake was filled with sand pumped from the river. Residents were offered USD 8,500 and seven days to demolish their homes. The World Bank Inspection Panel found that a USD 24 million land-titling project excluded residents and contributed to the eviction of about 4,250 families, and the Bank froze new lending to Cambodia in 2011.

Researchers and officials disagree on how much of the delta's decline is due to sand. Vietnam's deputy agriculture minister said the delta lost about 600 hectares of land a year and that alluvium reaching it fell by about 50 per cent in 20 years. A Reuters and EOMAP analysis in 2022 found that four dams held 81 per cent of the Mekong's sediment. Reverse flow into Cambodia's Tonle Sap fell 56.5 per cent between 1962–72 and 2010–18; dams explained about 21 per cent of it, with irrigation, sand mining and bed incision also contributing, according to Chua et al. A Vietnamese provincial official said the decline in sediment and sand stock should not be a reason to ban sand mining. In Cambodia, three activists of the group Mother Nature were jailed in 2016, with an order to pay the sand company USD 25,000, and on 2 July 2024 ten of its activists were sentenced to six to eight years in prison on a conspiracy charge.

  1. 2007Cambodia records sand exports to Singapore; Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh leased for 99 years and filled with sand
  2. 2010Global Witness reports about 796,000 tonnes a month of sand from Koh Kong to Singapore
  3. 2011World Bank freezes new lending to Cambodia after Inspection Panel finding on land titling and Boeung Kak evictions
  4. 2016Satellite-estimated extraction on the Cambodian Mekong 24 Mt a year; Mother Nature activists jailed
  5. 2017Cambodia bans sand exports
  6. 2018Mekong Delta: 1,808 houses lost to rivers or the sea in 2018–2020; Tran Van Bi's house falls into the Vam Nao river
  7. 2020Cambodia lifts its export ban; satellite-estimated extraction 59 Mt a year
  8. 2022Eco-Business and Mongabay report on Vietnamese and Cambodian licensing and losses
  9. 2023December: only a quarter of the sand needed for the Can Tho–Ca Mau expressway can be supplied
  10. 20242 July: ten Mother Nature activists sentenced; August: five families in Prey Veng lose homes and fields
  11. 2026July: Science Advances study estimates 48 million cubic metres a year extracted in the Vietnamese delta in 2017–2021

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

How much sand is taken from the Cambodian Mekong?
Government and regulators
Cambodian Ministry of Mines

Declared more than 13 million cubic metres for 2020.

VOD English
Researchers
Hackney et al. (2021)

Satellite imagery shows 24 Mt in 2016 and 59 Mt (about 39 million m3) in 2020, about three times the declared figure.

Earth Surface Dynamics (Hackney et al.)
Does dredging harm the river and its banks?
Government and regulators
Cambodian Ministry of Mines

Dredging might benefit biodiversity.

VOD English
Government and regulators
Ung Dipola, Director General of Mines

Erosion does not come from sand; only 4% of the river is dredged.

Mongabay
Researchers
Hackney et al. (University of Exeter)

Sand supply to the delta is about 6.18 Mt a year against about 50 Mt extracted; bed lowering destabilises riverbanks.

University of Exeter ORE (Hackney et al., Nature Sustainability)
How much of the delta's bed erosion and salinity increase is due to sand mining?
Researchers
Kumar et al. / NTU (Science Advances, 2026)

Sand mining accounts for 25–30% of bed incision and 16–30% of the annual salinity increase; extraction is 6–15 times natural supply.

Earth Observatory of Singapore (Kumar et al., Science Advances)
Researchers
Ahmed et al. (TU Dresden)

Licensed mining explained only 27.7% (2005–2017) and 35.3% (2017–2020) of net annual bed incision.

TU Dresden (Ahmed et al., Geomorphology)
Press and investigations
Reuters / EOMAP analysis

Four dams hold 81% of the Mekong's sediment.

BusinessDay (Reuters)
Government and regulators
A Vietnamese provincial official

The decline in sediment and sand stock should not be grounds to ban sand mining.

Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
Are Vietnamese sand volumes and exports accurately recorded?
Government and regulators
Vietnamese records

Sand exports in 2011–2020 of USD 212 million; companies declare volumes and taxes themselves.

Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
Press and investigations
Buyers' records (as reported by Eco-Business)

USD 705 million of imports from Vietnam in 2011–2020.

Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
Researchers
Gruel et al. (Earth Observatory of Singapore)

Field-measured extraction of 38 million m3 (2015) and 47 million m3 (2020), above official declarations.

Earth Observatory of Singapore (Gruel et al.)

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Sand as ‘the raw material of development’: expressways, embankments, concrete and land infill
    Government and developers, as characterised in the sources reviewed
  • Coastal and riverbank collapses described as ‘natural erosion’
    Official language, as characterised in the sources reviewed
  • Dredging might benefit biodiversity
    Cambodian Ministry of Mines · VOD English
  • Erosion does not come from sand; only 4% of the river is dredged
    Ung Dipola, Director General of Mines, Cambodia · Mongabay
  • The decline in sediment and sand stock should not be grounds to ban sand mining
    A Vietnamese provincial official · Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)

Recorded

  • Vietnamese delta: 48 million m3 a year extracted in 2017–2021, 6–15 times natural replenishment; deficit above 250 million m3; about 65% of channels eroding; bed lowering 10 cm a year
    NTU Singapore (Science Advances study)
  • Field-measured extraction in the delta of 38 million m3 (2015) and 47 million m3 (2020), above official declarations
    Earth Observatory of Singapore (Gruel et al.)
  • Licensed mining explained 27.7% (2005–2017) and 35.3% (2017–2020) of net annual bed incision in the Vietnamese delta
    TU Dresden (Ahmed et al., Geomorphology)
  • Cambodian Mekong: 24 Mt (2016) to 59 Mt (2020) by satellite; ministry declared more than 13 million m3 for 2020
    Earth Surface Dynamics (Hackney et al.)
  • Mekong and Bassac: 49 licences on 2,320 ha; 2020 extraction 16 times natural replenishment; export ban 2017 lifted 2020
    Mongabay
  • Vietnam sand exports 2011–2020: USD 212 million in its own records, USD 705 million in buyers' records
    Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
  • Delta losses: 1,808 houses (2018–2020); more than 600 ha of coast a year
    Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
  • Across 411 studies, only 27% measured extraction; on the main Mekong stem about 20 Mt a year permitted against 50 Mt or more extracted, about 60% of it illegal
    Earth Observatory of Singapore (NTU)
  • Dong Thap: licensed capacity fell from 9.4 million m3 (2015) to 5.2 million m3 (2021); delta expressways needed about 54 million m3 of fill sand in 2021–2025, of which freshwater quarries could supply about half
    Báo Đấu thầu
  • Vietnam's deputy agriculture minister: the delta loses about 600 ha of land a year and alluvium reaching it fell by about 50% in 20 years
    RFA Tiếng Việt
  • Fish provide 47–80% of animal protein in the Lower Mekong (Mekong River Commission, 2007)
    Mekong River Commission

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: USD · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • cambodia-ministry-of-mines (2022): Declared Mekong extraction of more than 13 million cubic metres for 2020 and said dredging might benefit biodiversity. · VOD English
  • cambodia-ministry-of-mines (2022): Director General Ung Dipola said erosion did not come from sand and that only 4% of the river was dredged. · Mongabay
  • an-giang-province-official (2022): A provincial official said the decline in sediment and sand stock should not be grounds to ban sand mining. · Mekong Eye (Eco-Business)
  • prey-veng-district-governor (August 2024): Said a company had a contract with the provincial administration; a Sand Resources Management Committee was set up afterwards.

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

  1. 2016Claimant won$25bn Compensation ordered to the sand company
    Mother Nature activists, first sand-related conviction
    Cambodian court · Criminal · Prosecution and a sand company → Three Mother Nature activists

    Three activists received 18 months in prison and were ordered to pay the sand company USD 25,000. Some notes give 2018 as the year.

  2. 2024-07-02Claimant won
    Mother Nature activists, conspiracy conviction
    Cambodian court · Criminal · Prosecution → Ten Mother Nature activists

    Ten activists were sentenced to six to eight years in prison on a conspiracy charge.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Sand extracted vs natural replenishment, Vietnamese delta
6–15×
48 million m3 a year in 2017–2021 (NTU, Science Advances, 2026)
Riverbed lowering in the Vietnamese delta
10 cm a year
About 65% of channels eroding; sand mining linked to 25–30% of bed erosion and 16–30% of the salinity increase (counterfactual model)
Cambodian Mekong extraction by satellite
24 → 59 Mt a year
2016 to 2020; ministry declared more than 13 million m3 for 2020
Sediment reaching the delta
about −50%
Over 20 years, per Vietnam's deputy agriculture minister; four dams hold 81% of sediment (Reuters / EOMAP, 2022)

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Court ruling existsDisplacement reportedKey earnings undisclosed

Nature

  • Disputed Does dredging harm the river and its banks?
  • Disputed How much of the delta's bed erosion and salinity increase is due to sand mining?

Figures

  • Insufficient Comtrade gap mt: Singapore-recorded imports from Cambodia 2007–2015 against 2.8 Mt declared by Cambodia;.

Accounts

  • Disputed How much sand is taken from the Cambodian Mekong?
  • Disputed Are Vietnamese sand volumes and exports accurately recorded?

Record

  • None on record No court case against sand-mining companies or licence holders was found; the court cases in the record concern activists.
  • Unclear Whether the revenue of Cambodian sand licences reached the treasury: Global Witness (2010) wrote that there was no evidence it did.
  • Disputed Who receives the difference between the official sand price (56,000–80,000 dong per cubic metre) and the market price (from 280,000 dong): not shown; a rough multiplication for An Giang gives more than one trillion dong a year.
  • None on record Mekong sand mining cannot be fully separated from the effect of upstream dams on the delta.
  • Disputed Conflicting dates for the first conviction of Mother Nature activists: 2016 in most notes, 2018 in one.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: UN Comtrade records for 2007–2015 show Cambodia declaring 2.8 million tonnes of exports to Singapore while Singapore recorded 72.7 million tonnes (about USD 752 million), roughly 26 times higher (Open Development Mekong).
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: a study (Quan et al., Nature Sustainability, 2025) is cited for a 40–50% reduction in reverse flow into Tonle Sap in 1998–2018 from bed lowering.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: Prey Veng losses of August 2024 and the creation of a Sand Resources Management Committee.
  • None on record The global total of sand extracted is an estimate derived from cement figures, not a measurement.

Did the harm stop?

Not recorded as stopped. Cambodia banned sand exports in 2017 and lifted the ban in 2020; satellite-estimated extraction on the Cambodian Mekong rose from 24 Mt a year in 2016 to 59 Mt in 2020, and extraction in the Vietnamese delta rose by about 25 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

Who paid?

Residents who lost homes and land to bank collapses, including 1,808 houses in the Vietnamese delta in 2018–2020, and the state, which set aside 12 trillion dong for erosion works since 2016, according to Eco-Business.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society✓ Researchers

Government and regulators

Press and investigations

Communities and civil society

Researchers

  2. River sand mining outstrips nature's supply: study
    Earth Observatory of Singapore (NTU) · 2026-07-22
  3. Sand mining far outpaces natural supply in a large alluvial river
    Earth Surface Dynamics (Hackney et al.) · 2021
  4. River bank instability from unsustainable sand mining in the lower Mekong River
    University of Exeter ORE (Hackney et al., Nature Sustainability) · 2020

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Science and environment

Hectare (ha)
A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.
Wetland
Land that is saturated or covered with water for long periods, such as marshes, swamps and peat bogs.

Law and courts

Land titling
Formal legal recognition of ownership of land.

Bonds and banking

Arranger
The bank that structures and sells a bond or loan deal, usually for a fee.
Similar cases
Mining · Water use · Chile · 2019–2026
Salar de Atacama lithium extraction
Same type: Mining, Water useCourt: won by claimantHarm to nature disputed
Mining · Mining / tailings dam · Chemical pollution · Water use · Indonesia · 2012–2026
Harita Nickel, Kawasi chromium-6 water and sago loss (Obi Island)
Same type: Mining, Water useSame regionHarm to nature disputed
Mining · Water use · India · 2023–2026
Tamil Nadu sand quarries measured by drone
Same type: Mining, Water useSame region
Mining · Water use · Guinea · 1974–2025
Boké bauxite mining and the CBG expansion
Same type: Mining, Water useHarm to nature disputed
Mining · Protected area / relocation · Indonesia · 2025
Raja Ampat nickel licences revoked
Same type: MiningSame regionCourt: won by claimant
Chemical pollution · Water use · United States · 1981–2026
DuPont PFOA (C8) at Washington Works, Parkersburg, and the Tennant farm
Same type: Water useCourt: won by claimantHarm to nature disputed