The Deadly Global War for Sand

Apart from water and air, humble sand is the natural resource most consumed by human beings. People use more than 40 billion tons of sand and gravel every year. There’s so much demand that riverbeds and beaches around the world are being stripped bare.

Sand Mining Photo Gallery

Sand Mining Photo Gallery The world’s beaches are being mined for sand for a variety of uses (aggregate in concrete, fill, beach renourishment). The practice is often very destructive and poorly managed (or unmanaged). This is a global phenomenon (Morocco, Caribbean Islands, India, South Africa and more). This theft of beach and dune sand is […]

Fears for Future of Ngapali Beach as Authorities Permit Sand Excavation; Myanmar

Hoteliers at Ngapali in southern Rakhine State have warned that beaches in the area could be irrevocably damaged unless the authorities stop allowing sand to be taken for construction projects. Local authorities have formally allowed construction firms to take sand from three beaches in apparent violation of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism’s Directives for Coastal Beach Areas.

India’s ‘New Cities’ Plan: Environment Not Included

Sand – inexpensive and abundant – is a treasure to India’s builders and the construction industry, which employs some 40 million people. But the spike in construction means sand mining, both legal and illegal, will increase in coastal areas, riverbeds, creeks, and rivulets.

Why Sand Is Disappearing ; By John R. Gillis

To those of us who visit beaches only in summer, they seem as permanent a part of our natural heritage as the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes. But shore dwellers know differently. Beaches are the most transitory of landscapes, and sand beaches the most vulnerable of all.

Lawlessness in UP: Sand Mafias Thrive Without Shroud Of Fear

The practice of illegal mining is common in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, India, along the riverbeds as there is constant demand for sand. The builders in the region are always on the lookout for cheap sand which comes from a mafia that illegally mines the riverbed.