Farmers along the Salween river in Myanmar say they've lost acres of farmland close to a dredging site by a Singapore-based company.
There's little transparency in the industry and as other countries put bans on sand exports to Singapore, Myanmar is feeding the demand.
Libby Hogan has more.
Something is devouring Myanmar's largest river, the Salween.
Villagers in the country's southeast depend on it for growing their rice paddy.
But the entire ecosystem is threatened to collapse and erode into the water thanks to the demand from global financial center Singapore for sand.
Farmer Than Zaw Oo points to where his lush paddy fields once stood.
Who's to blame?
Locals say its sand mining by StarHigh, a company registered - in Singapore.
(SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) FARMER THAN ZAW OO, POINTING TO WHERE HIS LAND USED TO BE, SAYING: "This land was mine.
It eroded slowly from the river bank and after a while, the whole chunk of land collapsed totally." Almost one million tonnes of sand was sent from Myanmar to Singapore in 2018.
Countries like Malaysia and Cambodia have banned the export of sea sand causing Singapore to scramble to Myanmar for its hungry demand.
The city's island has grown 25 percent since independence thanks largely to stockpiles of sand.
Companies like StarHigh have licenses to dredge in Myanmar but there's no limit on how much the company can extract.
Local lawmaker Kyi Kyi Mya, says more regulation is urgently needed to protect farmers.
(SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) MEMBER OF MON STATE PARLIAMENT, KYI KYI MYA SAYING: "I believe that the farmers will be able to continue their livelihood with a job replacement.
As an MP, I only have my pen and paper.
What I can do for them is to raise their voices but only the government is responsible for taking action." Farmers like Than Zaw Oo who once had 24 acres, now is left with just six after erosion.
The Myanmar government says the environmental impact of dredging is minimal and the company says the erosion was present before dredging began.
Than Zaw Oo borrowed money to build embankments to stop the erosion.
Now he's in debt and with his farmland disappearing under his feet all he can do is rely on odd jobs to earn money like making roofs out of palm leaves.
Farmers along the Salween river in Myanmar say they've lost acres of farmland close to a dredging site by a Singapore-based..
Farmers along the Salween river in Myanmar say they've lost acres of farmland close to a dredging site by a..