Environmental Issues In Cambodia Essay

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There is an uncanny link between wealthy, environment-friendly Singapore and Cambodia, a nation often faced with environmental problems: both countries play a part in the sand dredging business and trade. Sand dredging is a mining activity which involves digging sand from the bottom of rivers and oceans. It is known to be environmentally damaging, for it destroys maritime ecosystems and increases riverbank erosion, but also common, as sand is used in the production of concrete and in land reclamation projects. Faced with little space and a booming population, Singapore has expanded its landmass by more rhan 20 percent over the past five decades, importing massive quantities of sand in the process. A 2012 study by the United Nations Environmental …show more content…

UN trade statistics show Singapore acquired a whopping 56 million tons of Cambodian sand between 2010 and 2015, a number which far exceeds imports from other countries in the region. The sand trade might have saved Singapore from overcrowding, but it has also placed the city-State at the end of a chain of sketchy businesses whose operations are affecting Cambodian rivers and oceans. According to Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the co-founder of Mother Nature, an environmental NGO, “The sand mining industry operates without any checks or oversight by relevant government agencies, and as a result the environmental impacts are very serious.” Hardly anywhere is this more evident than in Koh Kong Province, a secluded region home to one of the largest mangrove forest in Southeast Asia. The area is partly protected under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty which seeks to preserve wetlands across the globe. Anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness estimated that the sand traded from Koh Kong to Singapore was worth $248 million in 2008, but it is not known how much material is currently being exported from this site. Singaporean and Cambodian authorities have not replied to queries on this

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