VietNamNet Bridge – Farmers in a number of provinces are pleading for help as they lose arable land to sand mining operations.

In Trieu Thuong Commune of Quang Tri Province, sand dredging barges operate daily from early morning to late afternoon, extracting sand from the banks of the Thach Han River.

Vo Thi Thuy, 42, a resident in Thuong Phuoc Hamlet, complained that the sand removal has caused serious landslides in the locality, causing residents to fear that their houses may one day slide into the river.

“Previously, we grew bamboo, cassava and sweet potatoes on the family’s land and we could earn over VND40 million a year. However, the large farmland we once had has been narrowed because of the sand mining,” Thuy complained.

“If they continue mining sand, we will have no more land to cultivate. How can we earn our living then?” she said.

The same serious situation can be seen in Tan Xuan 1 Hamlet. According to Phan Van Diep, there are 5-7 dredging vessels, including large ones, working without interruption from 3-4 am until 5 pm.

“The sand mining has deprived us of our means of subsistence,” Diep said. In the past, Diep and the neighbors farmed eels, which brought sufficient income to feed their families. However, they have been unable to farm for the last three years.

“The ships make the water muddy, killing the fishes,” he explained.

Phan Van Danh, a policeman of Tan Xuan Hamlet, said the sand mining has not only narrowed the cultivation area, but also has threatened the lives of hundreds of local people. Meanwhile, local authorities and people feel powerless in the face of the sand mining operators.

The only thing the Trieu Nhuong Commune People’s Committee can do now, according to the commune’s Chair Nguyen Duc Vong, is to “ask authorities of a higher level not to license sand dredging on Thach Han River to protect people’s land and lives”.

Pham Cuong, Chair of the Hai Le Commune People’s Committee, said that he heard the operation had been licensed by the provincial authorities.

In the last three years, thousands of square meters of land have been lost to the river. It is unclear how people in the two communes, who have been living off of the land for many generations, can continue to earn a livelihood if their land gradually disappears.

The sand exploitation has been taking place in many cities and provinces nationwide.

Tin Tuc newspaper has reported that local people in Bach Thong District of Bac Kan province have spontaneously damaged the fields and started to mine sand.

An Ninh Thu Do four days ago reported that Hanoi Police caught a ship illegally extracting sand on the Red River.

Thousands of people in Phuoc Thuan Commune of Binh Dinh Province reportedly gathered on the Ha Thanh River bank to prevent Phuc Loc JSC, the contractor of the Highway No 19 project, from extracting sand.

K. Chi