An Isle For An Isle : Sand Dredging in Cambodia

Phen Sophany and Mot Kimry- both ‘Mother Nature’ activists- travel past moored sand dredgers as they inspect the condition of the Tatai River in Koh Kong province.

Koh Sralau is a typical fishing village. Accessible only by boat, almost all the inhabitants rely on the ecosystem around them to provide for their needs.

A child’s artwork inside a home in Koh Sralau depicts the island, mangrove forests, and locals fishing.

The village school stops at grade 9, and older students must relocate two hours away if they want to continue their studies. As the fishing has dropped off, some students have left school to help their parents. Dwindling stocks not only impact community education outcomes, but leave fewer options for those who have finished their studies to stay in Koh Sralau.

Fisherman Som Chhorn, age 45, says that just four years ago his family could pull in 20 kilograms after a day of fishing. A good day now is lucky to net him five kilograms.

”Before, I spent less on petrol and caught a lot of fish; now I spend a lot on petrol and catch less fish.”

A container of freshly caught crab from the Tatai River, ready for assessment by a local broker.

28 year old You Samith stopped fishing and became a broker four year ago. While he considers the work more lucrative than being out on the water, he too has seen a downturn, and estimates that he purchases just ten percent of what he had in the past.

Baiting crab traps, 54 year old widow Hie Nary says her catch is a bare fraction of what it used to be. She and her husband had gone into debt to buy the boat and equipment, and now she is considering relocating to work as a garment worker.

Sand dredgers and barges sit idle along the Tatai river estuaries, their operations temporarily halted while they await dredging licence renewals.

The churned and disturbed banks of the Tatai River estuaries.

$Baiting crab traps, 54 year old widow Hie Nary says her catch is a bare fraction of what it used to be. She and her husband had gone into debt to buy the boat and equipment, and now she is considering relocating to work as a garment worker.$ Sand dredgers and barges sit idle along the Tatai river estuaries, their operations temporarily halted while they await dredging licence renewals.

In the south-west of Cambodia, the Tatai river meanders from the Cardamom Mountains through Koh Kong province toward the sea. At the mouth of the river, plantations and palms give way to dense mangrove swamps on islands of sand. Hidden among them- tucked in the estuaries, accessible only by boat- is the fishing village of Koh Sralau. If life here was ever idyllic, that time has long passed. These islands are under siege, and the livelihoods of the inhabitants are shattered, as the sand beneath their island and river system is stripped and shipped away.

Lurking along the tattered and slipping shoreline of the Tatai are sand barges and dredging vessels. The act of ‘dredging’ sucks up sand from below the marine floor to deposit on the barges, disturbing and polluting the water in the process. As over-dredging causes the river bottom to lower, riverbanks erode, mangrove forests submerge, and entire sand islands are lost. This destruction is all the more acute in a time of rising sea levels and increasing extreme weather events.

Eight years of dredging around Koh Kong has endangered local species of dolphin and turtles, and devastated the stocks of fish, crabs and snails that villages like Koh Sralau rely on for food and trading. The destruction has decimated the incomes of the local community, whose catches have reduced by between 70 and 90 per cent. With their income in tatters and unable to afford the expense, some parents have been forced to pull their children from school. Almost every family has at least one member who has relocated to nearby Thailand, where the pay is meagre, but steady. The shadow of debt hangs over many households.

Corruption, sand smuggling, and illegal sand mining have contributed to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of discrepancies in sand exports to Singapore from Cambodia. More than 56 million tonnes of sand imported by Singapore from 2007 to 2015 cannot officially be accounted for. Grain by grain, the Cambodian coastline and her ecosystems are being traded away to expand foreign lands.

Photographed in 2016 for the article 'Koh Kong fishermen struggle in the shadow of sand dredgers' by Phnom Penh Post reporters Phak Seangly and Shaun Turton.