Sand is a very important resource used everywhere in the world. Civilizations are constructed on sand; it is the world's second most utilized raw commodity after water and it is a crucial component of our daily lives. Sand is the main material used for roads, bridges, high-speed trains, and even land regeneration initiatives. “We just think that sand is everywhere. We never thought we would run out of sand, but it is starting to happen in some places," said Peduzzi, director of UNEP’s Global Resource Information Database in Geneva, Switzerland.
Surge in Usage
The world consumes 40 to 50 billion tons of sand every year just for construction. That's enough to build a 27-meter-high-by-27-meter-wide wall that wraps around the world every year. The demand for sand is so great that riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests are being destroyed all over the world to get to the valuable grains. In an increasing number of nations, criminal organizations have entered the sand trade, establishing dangerous black markets in sand. The global rate of sand usage has tripled over the previous two decades, and is significantly exceeding the natural rate at which sand is replenished by the weathering of rocks by wind and water.
Disastrous Effects
River sand mining is also accelerating the disappearance of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. The region is home to 20 million people and produces half of the country's food as well as a large portion of the rice that feeds the rest of South-East Asia. Because of the increased river mining used for sand extraction, half the Delta is expected to be wiped out by the end of the century. To make matters worse, dredging along the Mekong and other waterways in Cambodia and Laos is causing river banks to collapse, forcing crop fields and even buildings to fall. Farmers in Myanmar report similar events near the Ayeyarwady River.
Sand mining from rivers has also cost billions of dollars in infrastructure damage throughout the world. The sediment clogs the water supply equipment, and removing all that stuff from river banks exposes and undermines bridge foundations. Sand miners in Ghana have dug up so much ground that the foundations of hillside houses have been dangerously exposed, putting them at risk of collapse. Sand mining caused a bridge in Taiwan to collapse in 2000, and another in Portugal the following year just as a bus was traveling over it, killing 70 passengers.
What about Desert Sand?
Sand may be found in practically every country on the planet, including deserts, beaches and many other areas. However, that is not to suggest that all sand is beneficial. Desert sand grains are too smooth and rounded to bind together for construction purposes because they are degraded by wind rather than water. The highly sought-after sand is more angular and can lock together. It is typically sourced and harvested from the world's seabeds, beaches, quarries, and rivers. So the solution of “using the deserts” would not be an appropriate alternative solution to this problem.
Awareness
People need to start recognizing the problem at hand and start taking initiative. The worldwide sand shortage received a wake-up call in 2019, according to Peduzzi, when nations recognized the environmental disaster for the first time and the issue was finally placed on the political agenda as a result of a UN resolution. "It's still extremely new,'' stated Peduzzi. Many developmental programs do not even address the issue of sand, where it comes from, and or the social and environmental consequences.
The possible effects of the sand shortage are only going to increase with time. There are no current plans, no standards on how sand should be extracted, no land planning on where you should extract and where you should not extract, no monitoring of where it is coming from in most places (and) no enforcement of laws because countries are debating between development needs and environmental protection. The future will be critical as industrialization, population growth, and urbanization will only increase the demand for sand. As Peduzzi puts it, “it's time to wake up.”
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