The sidewalks, asphalt, and concrete we walk on stand solid and reliable under our feet. However, the most important material that comprises all these structures, sand, is not as structurally sound to the land where it is taken from. Tran Thi Minh Ha and Alice Philipson at Phys.org detail the devastating story of Le Thi Hong Mai, a resident of Vietnam in the Mekong Delta region who lost her home and small business due to the erosion caused by sand mining. The combination of a hydropower dam upstream on the Mekong and sand mining has accelerated the erosion caused by the river, causing the town to collapse into the water. The damage so far has been devastating; since 2016, 466 miles of riverbank and 2,000 houses have been destroyed. And mining is happening quickly; by 2040, it is predicted that 97% of the sediment in the Mekong river will be reduced. Even though Vietnam has spent $470 million since 2016 on projects to prevent erosion, this ecological disaster is not improving. All the sand dredged for industrialization in Vietnam has made the erosion too powerful, and the projects built to prevent it have also been washed into the river. It is predicted that 20,000-500,000 may need to be resettled before their homes also collapse. And this destruction is not isolated to Mekong River, flooding has also occurred in the Hau Giang province, and the Da Dang River in the Lam Dong province has significantly widened as well.
With all this destruction to their citizens and towns caused by the sand mining industry, why would Vietnam be so keen on continuing this practice to the degree they are currently? It’s because of one of their largest cities: Saigon. For the past ten years, Saigon has been demolishing its previous infrastructure to provide a blank slate for their new beautiful city concept, with tall skyscrapers, office space, luxury apartments, and wide highways. Construction is still ongoing today; some of the more recent infrastructure being the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge, the Hilton Saigon Hotel, and the Techcombank Saigon Tower, just to name a few. The city is littered with construction zones, cranes, and half finished buildings. However, what’s wrong with wanting to improve one of your largest cities, to make it more functional and beautiful? The issue is with the original citizens of Saigon, or really, the lack of them. According to Harms at Anthro Source, due to Vietnam’s technique of demolishing and rebuilding, people who have lived in the cities for generations are in the way of construction. Their homes are being forcibly demolished, and the compensation they receive is far below the actual price of their land, due to deliberate mismeasuring of the plots. Families can barely afford plots in other parts of Vietnam, and due to the improvements in Saigon, they cannot afford the raised prices of land in the new city. This all ties back to the sand mining industry, since so much sand is needed to continue infrastructure in Saigon. And since Vietnam has banned all sand exports, we know that all the sand dredged from their rivers is going back into this city.
So what does this all mean? There is one glaring statement to be made about it:
Vietnam is hyper-focused on industrialization, building dazzling infrastructure on par with leading countries, at the expense of the environment and those who rely on it, depleting their sand resources and unhousing lowerclass citizens in order to achieve their goal.
Or more simply:
Vietnam is valuing those in the upper class, at the expense of those in the lower class.
This theme has been a pattern with my last two posts, with the ‘Whoosh’ high speed railway in Indonesia being too expensive for the average citizen, and how the poor in Southeast Asia are being killed by rabies, with no action being taken to stop it. This issue has been common in many countries for many years, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. Justice and help needs to be given to those in the lower class, in whatever way they are afflicted. Awareness needs to be spread, and governments need to be held accountable. It is not only about immediate aid but also about advocating for lasting reforms that will address the root causes of inequality between the upper and lower class. We can work towards creating a fair and compassionate world where the well-being of every individual is of central concern.