"Cambodia's villagers lose ground – literally – to Singapore's expansion", 21 Oct 2016

…Singapore is expanding; its land reclamation projects make it the largest sand importer in the world. Politically connected Cambodian firms have rushed to meet the demand. Local fishermen, and one of Southeast Asia’s largest mangrove forests, are paying the price.

Sand dredgers have deepened the shallow estuaries around this village by several meters. That has created strong currents which have eaten away at the riverbanks, destroying long stretches of mangrove.

The crabs and fish that once lived among the mangrove roots, the mainstay of most family economies around here, are disappearing…

The sand industry attracts little international attention, but it is big business in Southeast Asia. Singapore alone imported 517 million tons of sand in the two decades up to 2012. Between 2010 and 2015 it bought 56 million tons from Cambodia, its largest supplier since Malaysia and Indonesia banned sand exports on environmental grounds.

The booming city-state has plans to add land area the equivalent of Manhattan by 2030, which could be bad news for the fishermen of Koh Kong province…