Hindering Economic Prosperity? Vietnam’s Illegal Sand Mining Industry

Vietnam is currently undergoing rapid economic growth, with ambitions to become a high-income country by 2045. This period of industrialization and urbanization has led to a reliance on sand from the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, a critical component of cement. However, Vietnam’s sand mining industry faces numerous challenges, including widespread corruption and negative economic and environmental impacts, leading Vietnam to ban Mekong sand mining exports in 2017. Despite this ban, sand mining has continued unabated, catalyzing an illegal black market and severe underreporting of mining activity. Here, Vietnam should consider how it can crack down on illegal sand mining exports to protect both its economy and local communities, while serving as a sand pillar for the region. 

The Demand For Sand

Sand is one of the world’s most sought-after resources, used in everything from construction materials to land mass building to cosmetics. Most valued by the construction industry, sand is a key binding ingredient in cement, which is a critical material for buildings and broader urbanization. Desert sand is too smooth to bind cement, leaving rougher sand, commonly found on riverbanks such as the Mekong’s, to be favored instead. The regional demand for sand is rapidly increasing, given the resource requirements associated with Southeast Asia’s industrialization and urbanization. Singapore’s sand-driven expansion, for instance, has made the island nation 20 percent larger than it was in 1965. Between 2015 and 2020, roughly 43 million cubic meters of sand were extracted annually from the Mekong Delta. The rates of extraction are currently 14 to 17 times the rate of replenishment, which risks depleting the Mekong’s exploitable sand supply within the next decade.

A Threat to the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

The delta is an agricultural keystone to Vietnam’s economic stability. It accounts for one third of the country’s GDP, including 50 percent of its rice supply, 75 percent of its fishery production, and 70 percent of its fruit production. The delta's agricultural productivity is threatened by Mekong sand depletion, which lowers riverbed elevation and decreases water levels. Low water levels devastate the delta in three key ways. First, it threatens agricultural productivity by reducing the nutrient-rich sediment critical for soil fertility. Second, it decreases fish yield by destroying habitats, resulting in lower harvests and a damaged ecosystem. And third, decreased water levels exacerbate salinity intrusion, which degrades soil and salinizes freshwater, prohibiting the growth of important cash crops such as rice. Sand mining worsens severe drought seasons, further increasing salinity intrusion and jeopardizing both crop production and the health of Mekong Delta communities. 

Sand mining also erodes the Mekong’s shoreline, compromising the delta’s infrastructure. This is worsened by excessive hydropower dam infrastructure along the Mekong River, which blocks sand from reaching the delta. The eroding shoreline places local infrastructure in serious danger–almost 750 kilometers of riverbank and over 2,000 homes in the Mekong Delta collapsed into the river between 2016 and 2023. Erosion has left a lasting impact on the delta, sinking farmlands, fishponds, and local businesses, as well as destabilizing the foundations of roads, bridges, and piers. Sand mining is making livelihoods in the delta increasingly unsustainable, jeopardizing the food, water, and infrastructure of millions of homes.

Corruption in the Sand Mining Industry

Vietnamese officials, conscious of the detrimental impacts of sand mining on the nation’s economy and local communities, banned Mekong River sand exports in 2017. But the ban was ineffective, instead generating a black market. Sand dredgers have incredibly high earnings, with some making $17,000-19,000 (VND400-450 million) a day, amounting to $570,000 (VND13.5 billion) a month. These earnings incentivize sand miners to continue illegal operations despite the ban. Some operators have also falsified invoices to under-report the amount of sand mined in the delta, allowing them to avoid legal prosecution and proper taxation. Vietnam now cannot properly estimate how much sand is actually being extracted and sold, leading to underreported and inaccurate data. 

Government Crackdowns on Sand Mining

In 2023, Vietnamese police busted a large illegal sand mining ring in An Giang province. Trung Hậu 68 Company was licensed to mine 1.5 million cubic meters of sand, to be used for the construction of four sections of the North-South Expressway. Yet by the time police investigated the situation, the company had mined 4.7 million cubic meters, which was valued at $9.6 million (VND253 billion). The perpetrators included government officials from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of An Giang province and directors of the Trung Hậu Investment Joint Stock Company. The government officials had allegedly taken bribes of $50,000 (VND1.2 billion) to permit the excessive sand mining. To further combat illegal sand mining, Vietnamese authorities installed security cameras at dredging rigs, mandating the footage be passed to provincial authorities for regular review. 

While Vietnam has attempted to crack down on sand mining, the unintended consequences have hurt the economy more than it has helped it. The 2023 crackdown has led to a reduction of sand supply, which sharply increased prices to $13-14 (VND320,000-330,000) per cubic meter in August 2023, $2-3 (VND60,000-70,000) higher than previous months that year. As of 2025, sand has surged to $22-30 (VND600,000-800,000) per cubic meter. Supply now falls far short of Vietnam’s demand for sand. Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport estimated that over 60 million tons of sand would be needed for the delta’s transport projects alone over the course of 2021 to 2025. The rising costs placed many construction projects on hold, as construction firms were unable to afford the new prices. Vietnam’s massive Can Tho - Ca Mau Expressway project particularly faced delays due to the lack of sand available to build the expressway's foundation. The project, spanning almost 111 kilometers, is the only expressway to connect the Mekong Delta to the rest of the country. In February 2025, the expressway was only 58 percent complete, despite being scheduled to open in December 2025. The expressway completed construction and opened for traffic in January 2026, with the project’s total investment exceeding $1.04 billion (VND27.52 trillion).

Some sand mining companies have turned to Cambodia, which quietly lifted its own ban on Mekong sand exports in 2020, to fulfill its sand mining needs. Vietnam went from importing almost no sand from Cambodia in 2019 to 7.44 million tons of sand in 2022. Records show that 17 companies imported sand from Cambodia via the Vinh Xuong Customs checkpoint in 2022–one of which imported 6,000 tons just to re-export it to Singapore. Due to the increased demand, Cambodia’s sand is very expensive, priced at $15.4 per cubic meter in 2023, and cannot be delivered without an advance in payment.

Vietnam’s Sand Mining Alternatives

Sand mining is difficult to regulate as the black market runs too deep. To tackle this issue, Vietnam is currently exploring potential solutions to protect its economy, such as sand mining alternatives. Construction projects require two different types of sand: A higher quality, coarse-grained variety for cement and mortar and a finer-grained filling sand for infrastructure and road construction. Since 2022, Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has been considering sea sand as an alternative to river filling sand for its construction projects. The ministry has identified three coastal sea sand mining sites: Two locations in Soc Trang province with a combined sand capacity of 13.9 billion cubic meters, and a mine in Tra Vinh province, with a capacity of 2.1 million cubic meters. In 2023, the ministry conducted a pilot project, which processed sea sand samples from Tra Vinh for expressway construction, concluding that the sea sand met all the requirements for the project. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) also backed the use of sea sand for construction projects in 2024, finding that it is generally a safe alternative to river sand. In 2026, the Can Tho City Investment and Construction Project Management Board for Transportation and Agriculture approved using 2 million cubic meters of sea sand to complete the delayed Can Tho - Ca Mau Expressway project. 

While sea sand helps satisfy Vietnam’s growing demand, this form of mining may have impacts on coastal communities that are just as harmful as those Mekong sand mining has on communities in the delta. Sea sand’s high salt content can leach into the surrounding environment, which can corrode steel structures and cause salt water intrusion to crops. MONRE is cognizant of this risk, raising key conditions for sea sand to be successfully implemented as a sustainable alternative. First, MONRE recommends establishing clear regulations on permissible salinity levels for agricultural land, crops, aquaculture sites, and related seafood. It also recommends evaluating the environmental impacts of sea sand extraction to minimize ecological damage. These ideas, while logically sound, fail to account for the plight of Vietnam’s sand mining industry. Vietnam’s inability to successfully enforce its Mekong sand mining regulations diminishes optimism that it can successfully enforce sea sand mining regulations either. 

Vietnam is prioritizing a growth-at-all-costs mindset to achieve its ambitious economic goals. In doing so, it is considering unsustainable alternatives to river sand mining that will create new problems for coastal communities. While a truly sustainable alternative to Mekong sand is not yet in reach, Vietnam could consider other less harmful alternatives that could also improve its circular economy. An emerging solution is using glass powder, utilized from glass waste, as a partial or full replacement for sand concrete. Results from a study published in the Environmental Science and Pollution Research journal found that glass powder was a suitable alternative to natural sand after testing glass powder concentrations in concrete blocks. The United States has already begun to test recycled glass for concrete application. As of 2024, the New York State Department of Transportation is working with KLAW Industries to create a pilot program that uses recycled glass in cement for sidewalks, curbs, and barriers in the city. If successful, this could be a potential avenue of cooperation between the United States and Vietnam to bring a circular alternative to natural sand to Vietnam. But since the project is still early in development, it could take years before the United States is ready to knowledge share with Vietnam. In the meantime, Vietnam should invest in research on circular sand alternatives and seek cooperation from the United States and other partners to further develop sustainable alternatives. 

Lauren Mai is a Program Manager and Research Associate for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.