The site where Le Thi Hong Mai's house collapsed into a river due to erosion in Can Tho city in southern Vietnam. - AFP
CAN THO: One summer morning, Le Thi Hong Mai's home collapsed into a river in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where shoreline erosion caused by sand mining and hydropower dams threatens hundreds of thousands of people.
Sand -- needed to produce concrete -- is the world's second most exploited natural resource after water, and its use has tripled in the last two decades, according to the UN environment programme.
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