By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 56 minutes ago, Updated 56 minutes ago
A boat transports sand on the Red River, in Hanoi, November 27, 2023. NHAC NGUYEN / AFP
Police in Vietnam arrested a senior provincial official on Monday as part of an investigation into illegal sand mining in the Mekong Delta, the government said. Nguyen Thanh Binh, the chairman of the People’s Aspirations Committee in An Giang province in the Mekong Delta, a hotbed of sand mining, was arrested for alleged abuse of power, said in a statement the Ministry of Public Safety.
Sand extraction, mainly used in the manufacture of concrete used in construction, has been booming for several years, raising fears of overexploitation and environmental impact.
Man already detained for bribery
Nguyen Thanh Binh, 59 ans, a “abused his power, intervened and gave orders so that the Trung Hau 68 company could overexploit the sand in An Hiang, allowing him to pocket a large amount of money”he said, without further details.
The office and home of this official, who has held the highest position in the province since May 2019, were searched on Sunday and Monday, according to police. Police recently said Trung Hau 68 extracted more than 4.7 million cubic meters of sand despite having a license to extract only a third of it.
In August, Nguyen Thanh Binh’s deputy was arrested and detained for pocketing $50,000 (around 45,300 euros) in bribes in connection with the same affair, which led to the arrest of more than around ten officials and businessmen. In mid-November, a civil servant was arrested for alleged collusion with gangs to ransom sand mining companies near Hanoi.
Acceleration of erosion
In a report published in August, environmental NGO WWF warned that overexploitation of sand to fuel Vietnam’s construction boom risks depleting the resources of the Mekong Delta, the “rice granary” of the country, within a decade.
Less sand causes rivers to flow faster and reach banks more quickly, thereby accelerating erosion.
2023-12-25 14:41:42
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