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Showing posts with label Sand dreding operation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sand dreding operation. Show all posts
Monday, March 05, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
Where's Samdach Hun Xen when illegal sand dredging is still taking place on the Mekong River? នៅឯណា សម្តាចម៏ ហ៊ុនសែន?
Dear All,
Khmer Guardian
The government said that there will be no more sand dredging, but the local authority allows it to continue. This is a 24-hr operation, 7-day a week.
These pictures were taken behind Wat Prek Leap on the Mekong River on 02 February 2012, just a short drive from Phnom Penh City.
Khmer Guardian
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| Map shoring the location on the Mekong River where the illegal sand dredging is still taking place |
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| Sand dredging boat - Photo taken on 02 February 2012 |
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| Sand dredging boat - Photo taken on 02 February 2012 |
Friday, July 16, 2010
CAMBODIA: Sand dredging prompts fishermen’s protests
Fishermen report a drop in the number of fish in the area (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)
Dredgers remove 25,000 metric tonnes of Cambodian sand each day (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)KOH KONG, 15 July 2010 (IRIN) - Fish are the primary source of income for residents of this sleepy, rustic border town in southwestern Cambodia, but when the area’s sand dredging vessels prowl the waters to plough up the riverbed, the fish all but disappear.
“When they were dredging a lot, we stopped bothering to even go out since it was not possible to catch anything,” Dol Sareem, a 60-year-old fisherman, told IRIN. “In those months, we caught half as much fish.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen banned sand exports in May 2009, yet sand mining continues in Koh Kong Province - the epicentre of the country’s corrupt dredging industry - enriching local elites and leaving fishermen to suffer, said international watchdog Global Witness.
There has been a lull in the sand operations since April, but local fishermen including Dol Sareem, who lives in Koh Kong’s main fishing community of dilapidated wooden homes with corrugated tin roofs, became so distressed by the impact of sand dredging that they joined several hundred people to protest in front of the provincial government office last December.
“It has improved since they have not been dredging these last few months but it’s still not like before,” he said.
Fishermen operating along the nearby River Kampot were less restrained in expressing their frustration. In February, they destroyed dredging equipment which they believed was responsible for the collapse of a riverbank.
Law not enforced
Dredging extracts sand below the sea floor, disturbing marine life and, more significantly, the spawning grounds that replenish it.
Dredgers remove 25,000 tons of sand each day from the Cambodian seas to export primarily to Singapore, where it is used for land reclamation, according to a Global Witness report in May.
The group valued a year’s worth of Cambodian sand at US$250 million on the Singapore market.
The report, entitled Shifting Sands, said the industry lacks transparency and government regulation, and could severely damage marine ecosytems essential to the livelihoods of many fishing communities.
“Companies operating in the sand sector as well as Cambodia’s regulatory agencies are ignoring environmental and social safeguards, and international industry best practices,” the report said.
The Cambodian government rejects the report’s findings. Cambodia’s embassy in London released a statement calling Global Witness an “international troublemaker” and describing its report as “malicious and misleading”.
The response by government officials closer to the ground, however, has been contradictory.
Pech Siyon, Koh Kong’s director of the Department of Industry, Energy and Mines, told local media he expected the main dredging company, LYP - named after Ly Yong Phat, the senator with the ruling party who is identified by Global Witness as the leading figure in the industry - would resume export operations in the near future.
Cambodia targeted
Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have placed restrictions on sand exports because of the environmental destruction it causes.
As a result, Global Witness says, Singapore has turned to Cambodia, where laws are lax.
According to Chourn Bunnara, who is based on the Cambodian coast with the NGO Fisheries Action Coalition Team, fishing communities have been largely powerless to raise concerns with the government about dredging vessels violating the ban.
“When they were dredging a lot, we stopped bothering to even go out since it was not possible to catch anything,” Dol Sareem, a 60-year-old fisherman, told IRIN. “In those months, we caught half as much fish.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen banned sand exports in May 2009, yet sand mining continues in Koh Kong Province - the epicentre of the country’s corrupt dredging industry - enriching local elites and leaving fishermen to suffer, said international watchdog Global Witness.
There has been a lull in the sand operations since April, but local fishermen including Dol Sareem, who lives in Koh Kong’s main fishing community of dilapidated wooden homes with corrugated tin roofs, became so distressed by the impact of sand dredging that they joined several hundred people to protest in front of the provincial government office last December.
“It has improved since they have not been dredging these last few months but it’s still not like before,” he said.
Fishermen operating along the nearby River Kampot were less restrained in expressing their frustration. In February, they destroyed dredging equipment which they believed was responsible for the collapse of a riverbank.
Law not enforced
Dredging extracts sand below the sea floor, disturbing marine life and, more significantly, the spawning grounds that replenish it.
Dredgers remove 25,000 tons of sand each day from the Cambodian seas to export primarily to Singapore, where it is used for land reclamation, according to a Global Witness report in May.
The group valued a year’s worth of Cambodian sand at US$250 million on the Singapore market.
The report, entitled Shifting Sands, said the industry lacks transparency and government regulation, and could severely damage marine ecosytems essential to the livelihoods of many fishing communities.
“Companies operating in the sand sector as well as Cambodia’s regulatory agencies are ignoring environmental and social safeguards, and international industry best practices,” the report said.
The Cambodian government rejects the report’s findings. Cambodia’s embassy in London released a statement calling Global Witness an “international troublemaker” and describing its report as “malicious and misleading”.
The response by government officials closer to the ground, however, has been contradictory.
Pech Siyon, Koh Kong’s director of the Department of Industry, Energy and Mines, told local media he expected the main dredging company, LYP - named after Ly Yong Phat, the senator with the ruling party who is identified by Global Witness as the leading figure in the industry - would resume export operations in the near future.
Cambodia targeted
Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have placed restrictions on sand exports because of the environmental destruction it causes.
As a result, Global Witness says, Singapore has turned to Cambodia, where laws are lax.
According to Chourn Bunnara, who is based on the Cambodian coast with the NGO Fisheries Action Coalition Team, fishing communities have been largely powerless to raise concerns with the government about dredging vessels violating the ban.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tonle Sap: Samaky villagers to be relocated … but they must take an oath not to come back
11 April 2008By Ung Chansophea and Kang Kallyan
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
At the end of a lottery organized for the distribution of land plots, the beneficiaries were asked not to sell their land immediately.
In the morning of Friday 11 April, a lottery was held for the distribution of land plots promised to the 39 families from the Samaky village who were victims of the riverbank collapse along the Tonle Sap River. For this occasion, Man Chhoeun, the deputy-governor of the city of Phnom Penh, traveled there, and the event took place under a good ambience.
“We are satisfied with this aid which comes right on time, just when we lost everything,” said Sim Sorn who just received the No. 26 land plot. “I am satisfied to own a house now, complete with the land title,” said Sorn’s neighbor who was standing next to a blue tent shelter, located in a school where the families of the victims are currently relocated temporarily. Currently, none of the villagers have yet visited the land plots promised to be granted to them located in Tuol Sambo.
During the lottery, Kim Ratana, the deputy director of the Catholic NGO Caritas, took the opportunity to make some announcements in order to reassure the families about their future. To start with, Caritas promised to provide foods and clothes for the families for one month. Next, Caritas also promised to build one house for each family, as well as water wells. Finally, about 50 children will also receive education material. Later on, Caritas will provide loans to those who want to start their small businesses “because Caritas is aware that this new life in another village will have an impact on the villagers daily life,” Kim Ratana said. “The majority of the villagers work in construction,” said Ouch Tum, a fish seller.
At the conclusion of the lottery, Man Chhoeun warned the beneficiaries by telling them “not to sell their house (immediately) to return back to the same place they lived before.” To add weight to his warning, he asked the 39 families to take an oath at the end of the meeting.
Regarding the landslide, while some still continue to believe that it was from natural causes, others are convinced that it was caused by the nearby sand dredging operations made by private boats. “There were no such incident in the past, but since they started dredging sand, the number of collapses increases,” one villager said.
In the morning of Friday 11 April, a lottery was held for the distribution of land plots promised to the 39 families from the Samaky village who were victims of the riverbank collapse along the Tonle Sap River. For this occasion, Man Chhoeun, the deputy-governor of the city of Phnom Penh, traveled there, and the event took place under a good ambience.
“We are satisfied with this aid which comes right on time, just when we lost everything,” said Sim Sorn who just received the No. 26 land plot. “I am satisfied to own a house now, complete with the land title,” said Sorn’s neighbor who was standing next to a blue tent shelter, located in a school where the families of the victims are currently relocated temporarily. Currently, none of the villagers have yet visited the land plots promised to be granted to them located in Tuol Sambo.
During the lottery, Kim Ratana, the deputy director of the Catholic NGO Caritas, took the opportunity to make some announcements in order to reassure the families about their future. To start with, Caritas promised to provide foods and clothes for the families for one month. Next, Caritas also promised to build one house for each family, as well as water wells. Finally, about 50 children will also receive education material. Later on, Caritas will provide loans to those who want to start their small businesses “because Caritas is aware that this new life in another village will have an impact on the villagers daily life,” Kim Ratana said. “The majority of the villagers work in construction,” said Ouch Tum, a fish seller.
At the conclusion of the lottery, Man Chhoeun warned the beneficiaries by telling them “not to sell their house (immediately) to return back to the same place they lived before.” To add weight to his warning, he asked the 39 families to take an oath at the end of the meeting.
Regarding the landslide, while some still continue to believe that it was from natural causes, others are convinced that it was caused by the nearby sand dredging operations made by private boats. “There were no such incident in the past, but since they started dredging sand, the number of collapses increases,” one villager said.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Hun Sen agrees to sand dredging restart
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Prime minister Hun Sen agreed to the restart of the sand dredging operation in a number of study areas found not to affect the collapse of riverbanks. On 06 December, Hun Sen ordered a temporary stop to all dredging operations, after a major riverbank collapse in the evening of 05 December. The authorization of the restart of the sand dredging in some areas came after the committee for sand management issued a report to Hun Sen on 14 December, showing that it has found a number of regions where the dredging operation can take place without affecting the riverbanks.
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