AP Photos In Sri Lanka, Fishers Suffer as Sea Erosion Destroys Homes and Beaches – AP
![Fishing boat on the beach in Sri Lanka (by Goran tek-en, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1024px-Fishingboat_sri-lanka-798x514.jpeg)
Ranjith Sunimal Fernando now has a shell of a home at the edge of Sri Lanka’s coast, lost to the sea. Waves lap past the broken walls into damaged, empty rooms.
“One night last month, my son went to the bathroom and I suddenly heard him screaming, ‘our house has gone into the sea!’,” said Fernando, a 58-year-old fisher born and raised in Iranawila, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital, Colombo…
We can’t run away – Beneath the Sands ERC
![Sand collecting in Mekong (by Yosomono CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2878678848_f5eda7aede_h-798x599.jpg)
The rise in sand demand endangers the lives of children, laborers, journalists and environmental defenders.
Greed over grains of sand has a fatal human cost: As cities rise and countries urbanize, sand-related murders and other associated crimes have taken a toll on poverty-stricken communities.
In parts of the globe, where sand is extracted, criminal gangs and sand mafias control the multi-billion dollar trade, spawning violence in land-rich, developing nations. On their trail are hundreds of people — miners, journalists and environmental defenders — reported to have been killed, imprisoned or threatened…
Beneath the Sands Series – the Environmental Reporting Collective
![The dredger ship "Hansitha" on the Mundakkal coast near Kollam, India (by Arunvrparavur CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1024px-Dredger__Hansitha__at_KollamQuilon_coast_Jul_2016-798x599.jpeg)
The greed for grains of sand comes at an ecological disaster and fatal human cost; murders and other associated crimes which have taken a toll on poverty-stricken communities, particularly women.
The ERC investigation, Beneath the Sands, exposes how greed for grains of sand comes at a fatal human cost: As cities rise in number and countries urbanize rapidly, sand mining-related murders and other associated crimes have taken a toll on poverty-stricken communities…
Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of – the Guardian
![Nurdles - plastic "gravel" (by Barbara Agnew CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr)](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2410117006_48ace7399e_c-798x599.jpg)
Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous
A burning ship covered beautiful beaches in plastic ‘snow.’ Now Sri Lanka faces an environmental disaster
![](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/srilanka-e1642831182693-798x445.jpeg)
Sri Lanka is facing one of the worst environmental crises in its history as tons of potentially toxic debris from a fire aboard a container ship blanket miles of its western coastline.
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