Kenya’s sand wars
Communities are pitted against sand harvesters, powerful cartels and one another as demand for sand in Kenya grows.
Kenya South Coast residents triumph as environmental tribunal blocks sand mining
Evidence submitted by the complainants showed beyond a reasonable doubt that sections of the reef had already suffered significant damage and that the sandy beaches had eroded to bare rock at sites where the sand sucking monster ships had, often under the cover of darkness, illegally extracted sand.
800,000m3 of Sand to be Removed Close to Some of Kenya’s Most Prized Beaches
Sand could soon be sucked out of the Indian Ocean, in a 0.4 –1km strip off the Kenyan coastline. The extraction will take place from Likoni through Waa to Tiwi Area in Mombasa county – close to some of Kenya’s most prized beaches and the Diani-Chale National Marine Reserve.
Sand Dredging Threatening Tourism at Top-Rated Kenya Beach
Unless measures are taken to halt dredging along the south coast beaches once and for all, one of Kenya’s greatest tourism resources could be damaged beyond repair and turn from a crowd puller and award winner in the space of a few months into a marine desert landscape.
Kenya: Leave the sand on Diani Beach
Tourism stakeholders in Kenya and local residents of Diani Beach south of Mombasa are up in arms over plans to extract some 5 million tons of sand from award-winning Diani tourist beach.
Kenya: Sand Mining Threatens To Displace Thousands
Every day, 180 trucks chug their way to the banks of a river near Lake Victoria and leave laden with sand. Their cargo fuels Kenya’s construction boom and the local labour market, but the extraction could spell disaster for the village of Nyadorera.
Liberia: residents decry illicit sand mining in Schiefflin township
Residents are pleading with the government to come to their aid as illegal miners continue to mine sand and causing grave environmental hazard to the community. They say that there is continuous 24-hour, 7-day beach mining taking place.
China’s search for sand is destroying Mozambique’s pristine beaches
The community of Nagonha in northern Mozambique sits on a tall dune with lush greenery on the one side, and a turquoise Indian ocean on the other. It should have been the kind of unspoiled landscape that Mozambique’s growing tourism industry is beginning to take advantage of. Instead, a Chinese mining company has irrevocably tarnished the scenery, and people’s lives.
Ugandan children abandon school for sand mining
More and more Ugandan children drop out of school, lured into sand mining on the banks of River Nile in Busaana Sub-county, and joining what seems a lucrative venture to earn a living.