according to singapore it imported many times that quantity it doesn t add up but the government has never commented on it that in cambodia since used to be something that never ran out now it s a valuable resource of vital material in the construction of booming asian cities. and cities are where it sat for many seeking a more prosperous life big urban centers around the world a bursting of the scenes for car suggested by 2050 up to 2 thirds of the global population will live in large cities and that has a knock on effect in the countryside villages the dying out many places are seeing a rural exodus of unprecedented proportions how can village life be made appealing again one russian entrepreneur is trying to help. welcome to my lead to dish a small village deep in the ural mountains only 20 houses are inhabited there used
a fisherman shows us the dredges extracting it from the riverbed locals don t know who they belong to. the many congress changed it didn t used to be this white used to be able to swim from one side to the other you can hear what was being said on the other side and the water wasn t as deep as it is today. he positions his fishing out here by the river bank every morning and used to catch plenty of fish throughout the day today though once again his net remains empty. across asia rivers and seas are being robbed of their sand which is needed to construction sites in faraway cities. glass cement asphalt all vital materials for urban centers expanding all over asia and only using sand singapore s prosperity is literally built on sand which for
comfortable lives and i m poor and can t do anything about it but because the sand is missing here our house slid into the me call. the villagers are desperate but also disheartened that. the sand doesn t belong to anyone it belongs to the river but these people come here investors business people they come and just take the sand in order to sell it. later cambodia has now officially prohibited the export of sand but how strictly is the ban enforced when asked government officials refused to comment just outside the capital phnom penh mountains of sand her piled up for the city s own construction sites this man works for a conservation group. 2016 we checked the shipping documentation and found that come bode you claim to be sending only small amounts of sand to singapore but