新加坡提钱四顾：到哪里买沙？ Cambodia is devastating its coast by dredging vast quantities of sand to sell to tiny Singapore for expansion projects, with multimillion-dollar profits going to tycoons close to the Cambodian prime minister, a watchdog group said Tuesday. Impoverished Cambodia has become the new prime source of the masses of sand used for projects to artificially enlarge Singapore's island territory now that several other Southeast Asian nations — including Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam — have banned sand exports because of environmental concerns. Singapore has increased its surface area by 20 percent in recent decades by filling in coastal seabeds to create new, valuable waterfront ground, a process known as "land reclamation." London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness criticized Singapore for the practice, pointing out that the wealthy island city-state at the same time "presents itself as a regional leader on environmental issues." "The country's failure to mitigate the social and ecological cost of sand dredging represents hypocrisy on a grand scale," Global Witness said in a report released Tuesday. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last year announced a blanket ban on sand exports following local protests, but the Global Witness investigation said the country continues to supply Singapore with tens of thousands of tons of sand dredged up from rivers and estuaries along the fragile coastline.
