Illegal beach sand mining, near Tangier, Morocco. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
Sur les plages du Maroc, près de Tanger ou de Casablanca, les dunes ont disparu, laissant apparaître un paysage lunaire. Elles n’ont pas été effacées sous l’effet de tempêtes, mais volées nuit après nuit par des escouades de camions pour construire des résidences destinées à l’afflux de touristes qu’attire la réputation de ce rivage au sable doux.
Le phénomène est le même depuis des années dans toute la région des Caraïbes : de la Jamaïque à Barbuda, les plages ont rétréci…
Translation:
“Beaches Sand Miners Are Skiming Away The World’s Beaches”
On the Moroccan beaches near Tangier or Casablanca, the sand dunes have disappeared, only to leave behind a somber lunar landscape. The dunes haven’t been erased away by natural storms action, but by illegal beach sand mining, night after night, relentlessly hauled away by truckloads, just to feed the insatiable hunger for sand destined to construction to accommodate the ever coming waves of tourists, crashing on the moroccan sandy coastline, once so pristine.
Such destructive beach sand mining operations have been of common occurrence as well, and for years, in the Caribbean: from Jamaica to Barbuda, beaches are disappearing…
” Le Sable: Enquête sur Une Disparition” / Sand Wars; An Investigation Documentary, By Denis Delestrac, a Film Documentary Produced by Rappi Productions and La compagnie des Taxi-Brousse
Sand: Most of us think of it as a complimentary ingredient of any beach vacation. Yet those seemingly insignificant grains of silica surround our daily lives. Every house, skyscraper and glass building, every bridge, airport and sidewalk in our modern society depends on sand. We use it to manufacture optical fiber, cell phone components and computer chips. We find it in our toothpaste, powdered foods and even in our glass of wine (both the glass and the wine, as a fining agent)!
Is sand an infinite resource? Can the existing supply satisfy a gigantic demand fueled by construction booms? What are the consequences of intensive beach sand mining for the environment and the neighboring populations?
Based on encounters with sand smugglers, barefoot millionaires, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous real estate developers and environmentalists, this investigation takes us around the globe to unveil a new gold rush and a disturbing fact: the “SAND WARS” have begun…
Le Sable, Enquête sur une Disparition (diffusion Mardi 28 mai) – Société et culture, ARTE TV
A la fin du XXIème siècle, toutes les plages auront disparu. Tel est le constat alarmant que posent de nombreux scientifiques et ONG.« Le Sable, enquête sur une disparition » est un éco-thriller d’investigation qui révèle la bataille méconnue que se livrent entrepreneurs, contrebandiers, écologistes, politiques et populations locales : l’exploitation du sable.