Border guards in Ho Chi Minh City discovered three barges to illicitly mine sand. The ships are equipped with 20 high-powered dredgers which can mine over 100 cubic meter every hour.
When the border guards raided the ships, each barge contained over 40 cubic meter of sand. Captains of the ships could not show licenses to mine sand in the river and not able to explain the origin of sand in the ships.
Border guards have seized people and barges.
The uncontrolled extraction of sand, gravel, and boulders from rivers is destroying ecosystem of rivers.
