Sand in the World Is Running Out: Sand Mining

Sand may seem limitless because beaches and deserts cover vast areas. But actually, the amount of sand in the world is declining sharply, damaging ecosystems and increasing risks to people.

Sadly, people with excessive sand mining are a major cause of this problem.

For many years, people have been trying to find ways to improve the quality of construction works but have 'forgotten' the process of exploiting raw materials for construction. Sand is the main raw material in cement, concrete and glass and electronic components.

Uncontrolled sand mining to meet the surge in human demand has has contributed to a global sand crisis.

A ship sprayed sand and water to build up the beach.

According to statistics, in 2010, the world exploited about 11 billion tons of sand for construction purposes, of which countries in the Asia - Pacific region, Europe, North America are the regions with proportion. Highest extraction. But this may not be the correct number because many countries hide the amount of sand used for other purposes such as shale mining or beach accretion.

Due to rising demand and a number of countries that have banned sand mining, turned sand into an export product on a global scale. This makes sand mining increasingly promoted, causing serious consequences.

Consequences of excessive sand mining

• Excessive sand mining has changed the ecosystems on rivers and coastal areas, pushing many species such as river dolphins, crocodiles,. to endangered.
• In addition, it also causes serious soil erosion that puts people living around in danger. The exploitation caused the coast to be narrowed, resulting in people being more vulnerable to floods and storms.
• The process of sand mining accidentally leaves stagnant water holes, this is the perfect environment to nourish mosquitoes or spread other dangerous bacteria. This threatens human health.

Ho Ba Duong in China and the consequences after 18 years of excessive sand mining.

What do people need to do to stop?

Many people are still not aware of the harmful scale of overexploitation, so it is still going strong all over the world. Currently, only a few organizations stand out, but not really effective.

Hopefully, governments and governments will soon build a safer, more environmentally friendly sand mining strategy in the future.

More than ever, sand needs to be treated equally as other limited minerals to protect our common home.