
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


It is hard to believe but the world is running out of sand. Our insatiable appetite for the substance that makes everything from skyscrapers to smartphones has led to environmental destruction in countries like Cambodia, where there has been a long history of illegal sand mining along the Mekong river. We are in the rapidly developing city of Phnom Penh to hear from the people whose lives and livelihoods have been threatened by the struggle for sand. Those who have fished the river for decades are finding that their nets are empty as the sand miners move in. People living alongside the Mekong have seen their houses crumble into the water as the riverbanks collapse.
By BBC World Service4.3
16071,607 ratings
It is hard to believe but the world is running out of sand. Our insatiable appetite for the substance that makes everything from skyscrapers to smartphones has led to environmental destruction in countries like Cambodia, where there has been a long history of illegal sand mining along the Mekong river. We are in the rapidly developing city of Phnom Penh to hear from the people whose lives and livelihoods have been threatened by the struggle for sand. Those who have fished the river for decades are finding that their nets are empty as the sand miners move in. People living alongside the Mekong have seen their houses crumble into the water as the riverbanks collapse.

7,836 Listeners

377 Listeners

1,073 Listeners

5,491 Listeners

968 Listeners

587 Listeners

1,843 Listeners

2,042 Listeners

363 Listeners

602 Listeners

974 Listeners

406 Listeners

424 Listeners

734 Listeners

848 Listeners

364 Listeners

1,002 Listeners

3,215 Listeners

1,040 Listeners

773 Listeners

1,044 Listeners

369 Listeners