KHÁNH HÒA — Thousands of households living along Cái River in Khánh Vĩnh and Diên Khánh districts and Nha Trang City of Khánh Hòa Province have complained that sand mining is affecting their production land.

This mining has continued for many years but shows no sign of stopping. The local government has promised to deal with such problem, as residents continue to see their land getting eroded by the river every day, e-newspaper zing.vn reported on Sunday.

Nguyễn Diệu, a resident of Đông Village of Khánh Vĩnh District’s Sông Cầu Commune, said he had reported the incident to the local authority but no one had resolved the issue.

“The sand is still getting exploited, causing erosion and my soil is getting cartied away with the water’s flow,” he said.

According to the People’s Committee of Khánh Vĩnh District, eight establishments were licensed to exploit sand at the section of Cái River that passed the district area.

"The local inspection team found a lot of river sections had eroded following reports from locals and we will report the problem to the higher competent agency," a representative of the Natural Resources and Environment Division of Khánh Vĩnh District said.

The section of Cái River that passes through Diên Khánh District’s Diên Thọ Commune is also facing a similar situation.

Earlier, the river was some 200m away from the provincial road, but currently it was only at a distance of some 20m, Dương Văn Mạnh, a resident said.

Thịnh Phát Co., Ltd, located in Diên Khánh District, has exploited sand for many years, but the local environment division said it was not clear if the company was licensed for mining or not.

Meanwhile, the provincial police said during an inspection of illegal sand mining sites along Cái River in September, they discovered Thịnh Phát company undertaking mining activity, however the company did not show the mining licence when checked.

The police said 10 vehicles were engaged in sand mining.

They also found more than 50,000cu.m of undocumented sand at the company’s area.

Police said they were completing documents for prosecution as this was a serious case of exploitation of sand, which had been occurring for a long time. – VNS