Zoom in on a satellite map of the Mekong River anywhere in Cambodia or Vietnam and you are likely to find cranes and transport boats lining the shores. This is sand mining — a large-scale, environmentally devastating process that is transforming the Mekong River.
Since 2014, the estimated volume of sand mined in the Mekong Delta each year has been independently measured. By using high-resolution satellite imagery and river incision maps, the spatiotemporal distribution of sand mining crimes and suction dredges can be traced and an estimate can be formed.
In 2015, the total amount of sand mined in the Mekong Delta was 38,000,000m3. Three years later, in 2018, the estimation was 43,000,000m3 — more than twice the amount officially declared. The volume kept increasing in 2020, registering at an estimated 47,000,000m3.
