SINGAPORE: Sand dredging and exporting is serious business in Cambodia, and most of it has gone to enlarge Singapore. But Cambodia had banned all sand exports as dredging has had a serious impact on coastal ecosystems and surrounding land said the Ministry of Mines and Energy. However, when two environment activists filmed illegal suspected illegal sand exporting activities, they were recently sentenced to a year in jail. The court in south-western Koh Kong province sentenced Dem Kundy, 21, and Hun Vannak, 35, members of the conservation group Mother Nature, their defence lawyer, Sam Chamroeun, said. They are innocent all along,” he told Reuters of the two activists, whom rights group Amnesty International considers prisoners of conscience. Dem Kundy and Hun Vannak were arrested on September 12 last year and convicted of “violation of privacy” when they filmed vessels suspected of illegally carrying sand for export. Sceptical about whether the ban was being properly enforced, Mother Nature and other groups pressed the government to stop the trade, saying the digging and dredging of sand has had a serious impact on coastal ecosystems and surrounding land.
According to Mother Nature, the Cambodian government falsely claims that Koh Kong’s coastal estuaries naturally carry “too much sand”, and as such need dredging and deepening so that they can be “more navigable for local boats”, and to reduce riverbank erosion and floods in the area. However, they say local fishing communities’ livelihoods have been ravaged by the sand mining. A report in Mongabay recalled: “Now when we go fishing we don’t even catch one kilo. Before there was a lot more,” Ken Yut Theary, a woman living in Koh Sralav village on the banks of the Koh Kong estuary. Due to the fishery collapse a lot of the girls in the village have no choice but to go and work in factories in the special economic zone,” she said, referring to the new factory development between Koh Kong city and the Thai border. Domestic rights group Licadho said there was insufficient evidence to convict the two journalists.
