Landscape and Social Disruption from Sand Mining and Mining-Related Activities: A Case from the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

The heavy global demand for sand in various sectors of the economy subjects the Vietnamese Mekong Delta to correspondingly high amounts of sand mining—a process that started in the early 1990s contributing significantly to the Vietnamese economy. The impacts of intensive sand mining and mining-related industries damage the integrity of the river and local communities. Much of the literature focuses on the former, exposing people to the deleterious implications of sand mining on the physical environment. This study aims to fill the gap on the less explored latter through the lenses of place and landscape per human geography tradition, using qualitative methods of thirty-five interviews with locals, video recordings, and sound measurements to highlight the impacts of sand mining and mining-related industries. This study revealed that sand mining and its associated activities are responsible for people’s perceptions of notable air, land, and noise pollution, as well as substantial harm to the urban environment. Over 80 percent of interviewed locals acknowledged the disruptions to their daily lives and a substantial loss of their sense of place. These findings shed light on narratives frequently overlooked by policymakers, emphasizing the urgency of addressing these issues for a sustainable future.

Key Words:

• environment
• human–urban relationships
• Mekong Delta
• place
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the Final Year Project of Samuel Li Cheng Xin, under the supervision of Edward Park (supervisor) and Dung Duc Tran (cosupervisor) at the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Education of Singapore (MOE), under its Academic Research Funds Tier 2 (#MOE-T2EP402A20-0001 and #MOE-T2EP50222-0025) and Tier 1 (#2021-T1-001-056 and #RG142/22 to Edward Park) and the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) via its funding from the Seed Grant and the National Research Foundation Singapore under the Research Centres of Excellence Initiatives. This work comprises EOS contribution number 594. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the MOE. This research is also funded by Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) under Grant Number TX2024-24-01.

Notes on contributors

Samuel Li Cheng Xin

SAMUEL LI CHENG XIN is a secondary school geography teacher who completed his undergraduate studies at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests lie in the intersection of social and cultural geography and geography education. Specifically, he is interested in the ways that time and urban space affect the social world of the younger demographic. Consequently, he is invested in exploring how geography education can be a powerful vehicle to allow young individuals to recognize, (re)construct, and articulate their social world.

Edward Park

EDWARD PARK is an Assistant Professor in Physical Geography at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, and Asian School of the Environment, and a Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include geomorphology, river dynamics and ecosystems, GIS and remote sensing, and implementation of sustainable management of large rivers. Specifically, his research investigates the tropical rivers processes and how they interact with human activities and natural disasters.

Dung Duc Tran

DUNG DUC TRAN is a Senior Research Fellow in Physical Geography at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, and Asian School of the Environment, Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include socio-hydrology, water resources management and climate change, sustainability, applied GIS, and numerical modeling.

Kai Wan Yuen

KAI WAN YUEN is a Research Associate at the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research addresses the effects of human interactions on physical and ecological systems. In particular, she is interested in the effects of land-use/land-cover change in the tropics.

Jingyu Wang

JINGYU WANG is an Assistant Professor in the Humanities & Social Studies Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. E-mail: [email protected]. His expertise includes regional and global climate modeling and applications, severe convective storms and hazards, meteorological instrumentation, and land–atmosphere interaction.