Boat fully loaded with riverbed sand, India. Captions and Photo source: ©© Thaths
Excerpts;
Artificial sand that is sand obtained by crushing stones and boulders is being considered as an alternative to natural sand, said Swadhin Kshatriya, additional chief secretary, revenue…
Activist Sumaira Abdulali who has been fighting against illegal sand mining and has been advocating an alternative to natural sand said the solution was even worse.
“It would mean breaking down not just hills but mountains, denuding trees and creating flat lands. This would result in huge climatic changes. When we talk alternatives it must be recycling and not wreaking havoc,” she said.
Abdulali said in some Scandinavian countries no fresh building materials are allowed in a redevelopment project until the existing debris is entirely recycled. In England, slag (a by product of the metal industry) is used to make precisely engineered aggregate suitable for construction.
Natural sand is mined from river bed and the sea-shore. To meet the demands of the construction industry, river beds have been stripped of sand causing soil erosion and flooding of fields close to river banks.
