Bodies found after Mekong riverbank collapse
The bodies of a 39-year-old woman and her 18-month-old nephew were recovered Thursday two days after a riverbank collapse caused their home in Kandal Province’s Khsach Kandal district to plunge into the Mekong River while they slept, but the woman’s 3-year-old son has not yet been found, police said. … On Wednesday, local residents blamed sand dredging on the Mekong for causing the tragedy by destabilizing the riverbank where their homes were built. … Yet according to Marc Goichot, chief of sustainable hydropower & river basin management for WWF Greater Mekong, riverbank erosion is a direct corollary of unsustainable dredging on the Mekong that is being worsened by upstream dams. “Yes, riverbank erosion is a natural process in the evolution of a river, but the rate of erosion currently observed on the banks of the Mekong and delta front are not natural. They are most probably induced by both sand mining and hydropower dams,” he said. … Despite a government moratorium on dredging around Phnom Penh, sand dredging barges can still be seen in operation on the rivers.
Simon Henderson and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bodies-found-after-mekong-riverbank-collapse-52895/
