Lake Victoria, Uganda. Photo source: USAID.
With a surface area of 68,800 km2 (26,600 sq mi), Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake by area and the largest tropical lake in the world. The only outflow from Lake Victoria is the Nile River. Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest fresh water lake by surface area, after Lake Superior in North America.
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The expansive Lwera wetland is a major water catchment area that connects several rivers and wetlands in many districts and drains directly into Lake Victoria, Uganda.
For years on, the locals have lived in peace with the surroundings. However, over the past couple of months, sharp noises from sand dredgers are heard… Sand mining companies are breaching rules and are destroying the wetland.
“The Shore Break,” A Movie From Riley Grunenwald; Variety (05-02-2016)
A gorgeous stretch of the Wild Coast is the object of a standoff between corrupt pro-mining forces interested in mining the local beach sand for titanium, and a South African coastal community.
Company accused of willfully destroying Kenya’s best beach (09-04-2015)
The nightmare of sandless Diani beaches is looming large again after a Chinese company, the China Roads and Bridge Corporation, decided to appeal a decision by the Kenyan environmental tribunal that no more dredging was permitted off Diani beach without a full environmental and social impact assessment study.The damage, is already significant and may take decades to repair both reefs and beaches, and the added illegal extraction of sand so close to the beaches off Diani and Tiwi amounts to “beachocide” in the name of corporate profit…
Sand, Rarer Than One Thinks: A UNEP report (GEA-March 2014)
Despite the colossal quantities of sand and gravel being used, our increasing dependence on them and the significant impact that their extraction has on the environment, this issue has been mostly ignored by policy makers and remains largely unknown by the general public.
In March 2014 The United Nations released its first Report about sand mining. “Sand Wars” film documentary by Denis Delestrac – first broadcasted on the european Arte Channel, May 28th, 2013, where it became the highest rated documentary for 2013 – expressly inspired the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to publish this 2014-Global Environmental Alert.
Sand Wars, An Investigation Documentary, By Multi-Award-Winning Filmmaker Denis Delestrac ©-2013.
