Sand mining in Vietnam's Mekong Delta sinks homes, livelihoods

Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Vietnam's "rice bowl" delta region, where the Mekong empties into the South China Sea, is predicted to run out of sand in just over a decade. But losses to the riverbed are already devastating lives and harming the local economy. With less sand, river flows become lighter and faster and hit the banks at greater speed, accelerating erosion. Between 2016 and August this year, at least 750 kilometres (466 miles) of riverbank and nearly 2,000 houses in the Mekong Delta region have sunk into rivers, government figures show.

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