When President Donald Trump launched his first trade war, in 2018, driving up the cost of goods from China, companies raced to relocate factories to Vietnam. The country’s economy has boomed, with gross domestic product growth accelerating to 7% in 2024, the fastest in Southeast Asia. But the surging volume of incoming parts and outbound products has also left its transport system under strain.
To alleviate bottlenecks, the government is embarking on one of the largest infrastructure drives in its history, spending billions of dollars to expand highways and roads across the southernmost part of the country. These huge projects hinge on one key commodity: Cambodian sand.
Vietnam aims to complete more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of highways in 2025—if Trump’s new trade war doesn’t derail things. But it’s running low on sand, dredged from rivers and used to stabilize the ground for pavement. Sand mining in Vietnam has been under scrutiny after riverbank collapses destroyed homes. So the country approached Cambodia last year about importing huge volumes of the raw material instead.
Since then, Vinh Xuong, a quiet town on the Vietnamese side of the Mekong River, has been swarmed daily by hundreds of sand barges ranging in length from 18 meters to 80 meters—or about the length of three pro basketball courts. Imports of Cambodian sand grew almost threefold in 2023, then more than doubled in 2024, to about 28 million cubic meters.
Each barge of newly dredged sand increases the risk of building collapses in Cambodia. A study led by Christopher Hackney, a researcher of river geography in Southeast Asia, shows lowering the riverbed by as little as 2 meters can cause riverbanks to collapse; dredging pits in Cambodia often exceed 8 meters in depth. But importers see opportunity instead of danger. “If it pays,” he says, “they’ll bring the sand to Vietnam.”
Bloomberg Businessweek - 2025.05
참고로,
본문에 언급된 지리학자(Chris Hackney)는 이런걸 전문적으로 연구하신 분이시군요
Chris researches sediment and water transport through river and delta systems, particularly in South East Asian deltas such as the Mekong, Red and Irrawaddy systems. He is interested in the way that humans are impacting natural fluvial processes, with a particular focus on sand mining
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/christopherhackney.html
Staff Profile | School of Geography, Politics and Sociology | Newcastle University
Chris Hackney is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology. He obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton in 2013 and was a PDRA on a NERC funded research project investigating sediment transport an
www.ncl.ac.uk
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724017625
먹고 살기 어렵다보니 메콩강에서 모래 채취하는 행위에 덜 민감함.
강바닥의 모래를 푹떠서 채취> 시간이 지나면서 주변 모래가 이동해와 구멍이 메꿔짐> 제방(bank)이 불안정> 교량, 제방의 안전 위협
메콩강 하류에서 모래 채취로 강 바닥이 낮아짐
영향 1) 강바닥이 낮아지는 건기에는 바닷물의 역류량이 더 증가함
영향 2) 하천의 범량 횟수가 줄어들어 자연 제방에 양분 공급 줄어듦
영향 3) 한번씩 범람해서 오염물질을 쓸고 가야하는데, 그러지 못해 환경 정화의 기회 감소
영향 4) 강바닥 모래를 터전으로 하는 생물 다양성 감소
상류과의 관계 : 중국이 댐을 건설하니 생기는 일
1) 상류댐에 퇴적물이 쌓이니 하류에 퇴적물(모래) 부족하게 됨
2) 상류에서 다른 곳으로 관개하니 (물을 빼서 쓰니) 하류의 캄보디아 범람원과 베트남의 삼각주에 자연홍수(범람)의 빈도 및 범람 범위가 감소하게 됨. 그래서 식량 생산에 영향을 받음
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