Rule change may threaten coastal areas

The U.S. Department of Interior Secretary’s reversal of a rule that limited where sand within federally restricted coastal zones may be placed is a change that environmentalists say is a step backward in protecting sensitive coastal resources.

Asia’s hunger for sand is harmful to farming and the environment

Singapore’s added construction plan (in brown), 01-2020. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care Singapore’s expansion has been a colossal undertaking. It is not merely a matter of coastal reclamation: Singapore is growing vertically as well as horizontally. This means that the nation’s market needs fine river sand—used for beaches and concrete—as well as coarse sea […]

Unsustainable sand mining is threatening lives along the Mekong River in Cambodia

Sand river mining in the Puna Tsang Chu, Punakha, Bhutan, January 2020. Photograph:Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care. As of 2011-2012, when investigative filmmaker Denis Delestrac and team, were first collecting and unveiling sand mining datas and information from the professionals involved, they found and reported that “the Sand business was estimated to be a […]

Ghana: Sand mining threatens coastal tourism in Central Region

Ghana’s 168,000-kilometres of Atlantic ocean (Gulf of Guinea) is undulated with batholiths as a dominant feature with stretches of sandy beaches intermittently separated by cliffs or rock outcrops. However, intensive activities of illegal sand miners at its coastline has exposed tourist facilities and other national edifices to the ravages of the sea.