Sand dredging close to shore can also create noise pollution.


Cambodia News, Phnom Penh: Residents of Kdei Chas Village, Sangkat Bak Kheng, Khan Chroy Changva, Phnom Penh, have expressed dissatisfaction with the local authorities and the mining and energy experts for not paying attention to their lives while allowing the sand dredging company to make a deafening noise which affects their daily lives, causes difficulty sleeping, and daily living with worrying about risk of river bank collapse and so on.

Residents claim that the owner of the company, Tatri, has been in the sand dredging business for more than four years in the area, and the noise goes on day after day with no respite. They are asking for the sand dredger to be moved further away from their houses.


In connection with this case, Mr. Kong Bunly, Bak Kheng commune chief, said that the dredging site has the correct law from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the company took the documents to the commune and they were approved.

When contacted on the telephone by journalists from NKD, Mr. Ngy Bunly, Director of the Department of Mines and Energy of Phnom Penh said that the line was very bad and that he couldn't hear anything, and then he hung up.

[The journalist says] The above case should be investigated and resolved by the local authorities and experts as this sand dredging business has been going on for more than 4 years, running the machine from 6 am to 7 pm, sometimes until 8 pm. I do not know if the business license can give the right to pump freely day and night, violating the right of the local people to have a peaceful life.

I a sure it is just a coincidence but the commune chief, Mr Kong Bunly, states it is all above board and the paperwork is in order while in PP, Mr Ngy Bunly is head of Dept of Mines and Energy. Is Bunly a common surname?
At least the excuse about a bad phone connection is new.

Kahuna wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:50 pm I a sure it is just a coincidence but the commune chief, Mr Kong Bunly, states it is all above board and the paperwork is in order while in PP, Mr Ngy Bunly is head of Dept of Mines and Energy. Is Bunly a common surname?
At least the excuse about a bad phone connection is new.

Or, he couldn't hear anything because of the noise of the dredging in the background when the journalist phoned him ?

Anyway, I'm with the villagers, it must be like having a construction site next door for 4 years that never finishes. Enough to drive you nuts.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:08 pm Sand dredging close to shore can also create noise pollution.

...a deafening noise which affects their daily lives

....and the noise goes on day after day with no respite.

....the line was very bad and that he couldn't hear anything, and then he hung up. (LOL LOL)

.....pump freely day and night, violating the right of the local people to have a peaceful life.

You gotta learn to live with it or you can go mad - it is ubiquitous
I penned this a few years ago

It is a lovely soft August day here with a thin, even, baby's blanket of cloud diffusing the light and defeating the heat.
The near full Mekong spills a thousand dam-loads of untamed kinetic energy just 15 metres past my back door in absolute silence.
A couple of dozen different birdcalls ring out under the trees, and from somewhere upstream,
just around the river-bend, drifts the ubiquitous lulling drone of a traditional Cambodian sand mining dredge.

New Sand Dredging Begins Along Tonle Bassac River in Phnom Penh
3 min read

Tran Techseng
| Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:34 pm

A new sand dredging operation has commenced on the Tonle Bassac river in Phnom Penh within the past month, a local official said, with more than 90 companies now dredging rivers and streams in the country, according to the Mines and Energy Ministry.

An environmentalist, however, raised concerns about over-extraction as well as the impact of using the sand for extensive landfilling of lakes and other bodies of water for development.

On the Tonle Bassac in Meanchey district’s Chak Angre Krom commune, three to four sand-dredging platforms can be seen filling up barges with river sand.

Tuol Roka village chief Hor Yeav said the dredging began a month ago, and was permitted between Prek Samraong bridge in Kandal province’s Takhmao city and Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich.

Yeav said he hoped the operators would use proper techniques, noting that there have been riverbank collapses in other areas.

Mines and Energy Ministry spokesperson Yos Mony Rath said the Tonle Bassac dredging was not part of the 90 licensed operations under the ministry — it was instead a local “restoration” project handled by City Hall.

In terms of bigger dredging projects, a new operator, Chaktomuk Resources Supply last month began work based on a license to dredge 800 hectares in four zones on the Tonle Bassac and Mekong, Mony Rath said.

He said residents were consulted before dredging started, the river bottoms had been studied for potential impact, and the company had to follow strict requirements not to dig too deep or dredge outside prescribed boundaries. Government officers would inspect once or twice a month, Mony Rath said.

He added that the sand would be sold for domestic landfill first, and exported if there was excess supply.
https://vodenglish.news/new-sand-dredgi ... hnom-penh/

January 20, 2021
13 firms bid to extract sand in two provinces
Chea Vanyuth

The Ministry of Mines and Energy received applications from 13 bidders for sand extractions in two provinces when the deadline for submission closed yesterday.

The ministry had called for public bidding for sand extractions in seven areas in Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk provinces.

The three areas identified in Koh Kong province are in Botom Sakor and Sre Ambel districts while the four areas are located in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav and Prey Nop districts.

The Director-General of Mines at the ministry Yos Monirath in a statement said the seven areas cover about 2,100 hectares and the ministry will issue permits for the applicants to carry out the study at the designated areas.

With the closing of the submission of bidding applications yesterday, he told Khmer Times that they will call the applicants on Friday and issue them with permits to conduct a study for commercial potential.

The companies have 30 days to conduct a study on the designated areas before submitting their business plans to the ministry before it decides on which company or companies to issue the business licence,”said Monirath.

The sediment in the locations is mainly sand for filling the basement of buildings and constructions, he said.

Currently, over 100 licences have been issued by the ministry for sand extractions throughout the country and the licences are normally for a two-year period.

The sand extraction bidding announcement in the two provinces was made amidst the construction sector in the coastal provinces, particularly in Preah Sihanouk province booming.

Last year, the royalty revenue from the sand extraction licenses were $20 million, inching up from $19 million recorded in 2019, according to the ministry.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50805194/1 ... provinces/

In the Land of Water where paper tittle to the Earth is worth more than silver and gold
Sand is the King



so to speak

In Cambodia, this village shows even the wealthy are vulnerable to land grabbing
While high-profile land grabbing disputes involving disempowered communities have made headlines in Cambodia in recent years, the case of Arey Ksat – a village of well-connected and wealthy residents near Phnom Penh – shows few are safe from the practice
Written By: Andrew Haffner
February 10, 2021
The river view behind the house was broad and serene, a wide expanse of the Mekong flowing just past the newly occupied villa.

A pretty sight, and prime real estate too. So when the sand pumping crews showed up just after the housewarming party late last summer, manning their hoses alongside roaring diesel engines to pour a seemingly endless slurry beginning at about dawn each day, the homeowner was reasonably upset. They’d gone through the trouble of making a home on the riverbank only to find the riverbank being made almost up to the home itself.

“Every morning, you can just hear them fucking up your land,” the homeowner said, asking to go unnamed.

Filling in the Mekong has been big business over the past year, with major developers dredging and pouring sand with little to no public scrutiny. Now, a new embankment is taking shape just across the river from Phnom Penh, apparently without any legal concession, busily filling in the riverside and hemming in a group of landowners who say they’re legally entitled to access the river – a line now being closed by a growing heap of sand.

Some well-to-do residents on the banks today paid top dollar for the property along the water’s edge. But, buyer beware, their once-quiet homes have now become a case study on the nature of land ownership and development in Cambodia, where it’s not uncommon for landowners, sometimes with limited legal claims to their property, to face off against large developers and well-connected tycoons.

The case unfolding now near Arey Ksat village is unusual in that several of the residents have ample financial resources and, within one group of households, include a fairly well-connected bunch. Their ranks include at least one developer, a noted philanthropist and an honorary Spanish consul, one of a few scattered in Asian countries where Spain lacks an official diplomatic mission. The land deals of these residents, while not backed with the Cambodian gold-standard of a hard title, were vetted with an eye to protecting a long-term investment on the riverside.

“They started this literally when I just moved in,” said one business person who asked to go unnamed. “They’ve not told us anything. Just a lot of the government officials who have said what they’ve heard, but they’ve not shown us any paperwork, because there’s nothing to show and they’re too afraid to say they don’t have it.”
Full article: https://southeastasiaglobe.com/land-grabbing-cambodia/

Large-scale Mekong River landfilling draws concern eco-system and water way

Almost every day for the past year about a dozen boats carrying thousands of cubic meters of sand dump their load at Koh Norea, a small tip of land where the Mekong spills into the Bassac river. According to workers at the site, the sand comes from the upper Mekong, part of a vast dredging process to provide sufficient landfill for Cambodia’s latest supersized development project: a massive satellite city just south east of Phnom Penh, totaling 125 hectares.

When the project, developed by Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation, is completed, it will just 400 meters out into the Mekong, according to workers on the site. That intrusion, at a spot where the river is about 1600 meters wide is certain to have an impact on the river, affecting everything from water flow, to water level, to the delicate river ecosystem, according to experts. But a year into the project, neither the government nor developer has yet to release an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The issue is particularly pressing because Koh Norea is just one of the projects straining the Mekong river. Almost directly across from Koh Norea, at the bucolic Arey Ksat village, lies the site of a 70-hectare planned satellite city. Developed by Khun Sear Import Export company, owned by the well-connected real estate tycoon Khun Sear, the satellite city is currently being developed through an identical land-filling process, narrowing the Mekong even further.

https://cambojanews.com/large-scale-mek ... eyJlJ7EgCM

KNPG Investment gets Koh Kong sand-mining licence
Thou Vireak | Publication date 17 May 2021 | 18:18 ICT
KNPG Investment Co Ltd obtained a licence to mine silica sand in Koh Kong province's southwest, at a site previously operated by Sibelco (Cambodia) Co Ltd.

Deputy provincial governor Ouk Pheaktra led a virtual meeting on May 13 to discuss with company representatives the results of KNPG Investment's full environmental and social impact assessment process for the project in Kiri Sakor district's Prek Khsach commune.

He told The Post that there wouldn't be much of a project-related impact, noting that the site is an existing venture.

However, he said, the provincial administration ordered the company to conduct a technical study on transport infrastructure, as well as wastewater and solid waste management.

"We would like to address impacts and compensation – if the implementation of this project affects property or land ownership, or people's livelihoods – to improve the living standards of locals, through the recruitment of workers or staff from the vicinity of the project.

"We also want to take care of the environment, natural resources and biodiversity in and near the project site, and all construction and work at the company's white-sand mining business must comply with the guidelines set by the Royal Government, the Ministry of Environment and regulations as permitted for the company by the licence," he said.

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April last year approved KNPG Investment's proposal for a $6 million silica-sand processing plant to be located in Koh Kong Special Economic Zone in Kiri Sakor's Prek Sandor commune.

Ministry of Mines and Energy director-general for Mineral Resources Yos Monirath told The Post on May 16 that the ministry greenlit the licence, and that the company is preparing to build a glass manufacturing plant.

He said: "In this business, we do not allow white sand to be exported, we want it to be processed locally into finished products as planned. They set up a glass factory. Its establishment will help to increase value-added rather than exporting raw materials, and it will also create some more local jobs."

On January 5, the ministry announced a public auction to award licences to mine and process sand at seven locations covering over 2,000ha in Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk provinces.

The three locations in Koh Kong cover 1,455ha – the 109ha and 882ha sites are in Botum Sakor district, while another 464ha plot is in Sre Ambel district, the ministry said in a notice.

The four locations in Preah Sihanouk cover 668.2ha – the 318.70ha and 81.50ha sites are in Stung Hav district, while the 60ha and 228ha plots are in Prey Nop district.

The ministry has issued more than 100 licences for sand businesses nationwide. In 2019, Cambodia collected about $21 million in non-tax revenue from the mining sector, gaining five per cent over the $20 million posted in 2018, according to Monirath.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ ... ng-licence