Sand Mining for Singapore Exports Threatens Cambodian Fishing Village

In June, a fleet of sand‑mining barges appeared off the coast of Koh Sralao, a fishing village in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province. The vessels, part of an operation 10 km upstream on the Trapeang Rung River, have been approved to extract sand for export to Singapore, where a Mongabay investigation suggests the material is likely used in a government‑backed reclamation project. The move follows a 2017 ban that halted sand dredging after politically connected companies had removed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of sand from nearby estuaries, damaging ecosystems and livelihoods. Local fishers, such as Rithy, report that the barges block their access to traditional fishing grounds and threaten to destroy nets. Communities, conservationists and activists warn that the new mining could repeat the ecological and economic harm that prompted the earlier ban.