Helpless against rampant sand pirates
During the day, the gentle Gianh River flows through the alluvial grounds along Xuan Son village (Tuyen Hoa commune), Truong Long (Tan Gianh commune). But at night, when the lights on both sides of the bank have turned off, sand dredgers begin to line up to operate until dawn.
Mr. Tran Van An (name changed), a resident of Xuan Son village, said that his family once bid for 1 hectare of riverside land to grow vegetables. For more than 10 years, alluvium has been deposited to help the land become fertile and bring stable income. However, for about 5 years now, the banks have been continuously deepened.
“Every night approaching midnight, the sound of engines exploding echoes. I have to hold a flashlight to the riverbank, shout, throw stones to get them to pull out the straws. But they pull out this place and move to another place,” Mr. An said.
Bamboo trees planted more than ten years ago to retain the soil are now collapsed in patches. From a distance of more than 5m from the water's edge, the river has now crept deep into the garden.
About 300m away, Mr. Pham Van Tuan (name changed) is also in a similar situation. Every night hearing the roar of the ship, it means that the next morning a piece of colored soil drifts into the river. He has repeatedly called to complain to the commune leaders, but the situation continues.
Rows of sand dredgers in the middle of the night
At the end of December 2025, the hotline of Lao Dong Newspaper received a reflection on illegal sand mining activities on the Gianh River, and a group of reporters intervened to investigate.
On the night of January 15 and early morning of January 16, 2026, at the river section opposite Len Rong market, two large ships without lights quietly approached the shore for about 5m. A suction pipe with a diameter of more than 20cm was dropped, and just over 10 minutes later the ship's compartment was full. Each ship contained from 20m3 to more than 30m3 of sand. When the ship left, patches of land along the shore collapsed because the bottom was hollowed out into a "frog's mouth".
After pumping, the ship moved towards Van Hoa bridge, then reporters recorded ships docking at Son Ha gathering yard (Tan Thi village, Tan Gianh commune) or Tung Cat (Xuan Ha village, Tuyen Hoa commune). These yards are surrounded with high corrugated iron, inside there is a sand pushing system connected directly from the ship to the yard. As soon as the ship docked, the sand pumping process took place in the dark, only occasionally flashlights turned on for a few seconds to check the hold. The process was repeated many times overnight. On the evening of January 17, in the area near Van Hoa Clinker Export Port, another ship continued to pump sand in the Gianh River. Then, the ship stopped again at Tung Cat yard, where there was a 2-story operating house, excavators and many trucks waiting.
During the day, ships are anchored at the wharf, and heavy trucks line up to enter the sand picking yard. On January 18, at Tung Cat yard, 3 suction pipes, 2 ashore-anchored ships and many tractor trucks transporting sand along National Highway 12A, through National Highway 1 for consumption were recorded.
Receiving information about sand mining vessels operating on the Gianh River, the Economic Police Department of Quang Tri Provincial Police coordinated with reporters to monitor for many nights. The subjects have a network of guards both on the shore and under the river, so as soon as there is an "alarm", they stop operating.
In the early morning of February 5, when two ships were dredging sand passing through Truong Long village, functional forces suddenly approached, fired warning shots, and controlled it on the spot.One ship was arrested, the other ship fled but was later also controlled.
There were a total of 5 people on the two ships.The storage compartment was still full of sand and water.The subjects confessed that they were hired by Mr. Nguyen Khanh Tung, owner of Tung Cat gathering yard to exploit at an unlicensed location.At the yard, functional forces recorded more than 900m3 of gathered sand, requesting to present documents proving legal origin.
After Lao Dong Newspaper worked with the authorities of Tuyen Hoa and Tan Gianh communes, the localities established an inter-sectoral inspection team. Right during the patrol, another case of driving a wooden boat containing about 9m3 of sand without legal papers was discovered. Local authorities admitted that the situation of illegal sand mining is complicated, especially in the border area. Communes said they will strengthen patrols, review gathering yards, and consolidate community groups for supervision.
For people living along the river, what they desire is not only to handle a few boats, but to end the prolonged "gutting" situation for many years. So that the banks no longer erode, farmers do not have to stay up all night holding flashlights to guard and the Gianh River returns to its inherent peace.
