The Sand Thieves: World’s Beaches Become Victims of Construction Boom. It’s not Just Cape Verde.
Sand is becoming so scarce that stealing it has become an attractive business model. With residential towers rising ever higher and development continuing apace in Asia and Africa, demand for the finite resource is insatiable.
Mafia Mixes Riverbed Sand With Beach Sand, Andhra Pradesh, India
Sand mafia is now mixing up the beach sand with riverbed sand for construction activity in the city due to scarcity. Though the practice exists in the city for sometime on the outskirts, it has become rampant with shortage of sand.
“Sand Wars” Won At The 29th Gémeaux Awards, Canada
Sand-Wars won the PRIX GEMEAUX award for Best Documentary in the Nature and Sciences category, at the Academy of Canadian and Television (ACCT).
How Sand Became One of Phnom Penh’s Hottest Commodities, Cambodia
Phnom Penh’s construction frenzy is fueling the need for sand dredging. According to the Cambodian government, between 15,000 to 20,000 cubic meters of sand per day is needed in Phnom Penh to sustain the city’s building boom.
Monterey Bay, California: Beach Sand Mining from a National Marine Sanctuary; By Gary Griggs
The 30-mile long, continuous sandy shoreline around Monterey Bay is the most visited stretch of shoreline on the central coast. Yet, it holds the dubious distinction of being the only active beach sand mining operation along the entire United States shoreline. To make matters even worse, it all takes place along the shoreline of a protected National Marine Sanctuary. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.
Demand for Sand Takes Off Because Off Fracking
Frackers are expected to use nearly 95 billion pounds of sand this year, up nearly 30% from 2013. There are growing restraints on sand supplies and oil companies’ insatiable appetite has generated renewed interest in second-tier deposits of lower-quality brown sand in places like Texas.
A Beach Project Built on Sand; By Robert S. Young, PhD
Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a $207 million plan to dredge millions of tons of sand off the south shore of Long Island and spread it along the beaches and dunes. It is a colossal waste of money and another consequence of the nation’s failure to develop a coherent plan to address the risks from storms faced by states along the eastern seaboard and gulf coast.
Dumping Ban Urged for Australia’s Iconic Reef
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the government agency responsible for protecting the reef, recently approved the dumping of five million tonnes of dredging spoil in the reef region. Scientists and coral reef experts universally condemned the decision.
“El Expolio De La Arena”
In this original version, investigative journalist Cristina Sáez, writing for leading spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, exposes how extensive, detrimental, silenced yet utterly pervasive “The pillaging of beach sand” has become.