Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has urged the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the illegal sand extraction at Cua Dai Beach in the central province of Quang Nam.
The move came after public concern over illegally-exploited sand at Cua Dai Beach in Hoi An Town being sold to the Da Phuoc-The Sunrise Bay urban area project in Danang City.
Cua Dai Bach is facing severe erosions
The violation has resulted in severe erosions for Cua Dai Beach since 2013 with 20 hectares of Cua Dai Beach having been washed away. A 300-metre-long section of the beach was eroded by late 2015.
Several companies that have participated in a dredging project in the Cua Dai Estuary are suspected to be the violators.
The dredging project, which began in January, aimed to dredge 70,000 cubic metres of sand from the Cua Dai Estuary to facilitate passage of boats and re-sanding the badly eroded Cua Dai Beach.
However, just 16,500 cubic metres had been pumped onto Cua Dai Beach between January and March 25, and the remaining 50,000 cubic metres are “missing”.
Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of Hoi An People’s Committee, also said that just a fifth of the contracted volume of sand had been deposited on the beach since January.
He noted that the city had suspended the project in order to find where the huge volume of nearly 50,000 cubic metres of sand had been taken away.
Cua Dai Beach was previously well-known for its beauty.