Dubai’s 828m tower was constructed with a record-breaking 330,000m 3 of concrete and 103,000m 2 of glass. One way to do this is through reducing unnecessary consumption of sand: almost a third of Dubai’s office space was vacant in 2014, and the report cited the Burj Khalifa as a symbol of prestige rather than a building designed to serve a necessary function. The report called for an overhaul of how we design and construct buildings and infrastructure to reduce sand and gravel demand to responsible levels. In 2019, the UNEP noted existing solutions that could be implemented to reduce damage to ecosystems, as well as risks to communities and workers around sand extraction sites. The best current solution is to rethink construction However, lax and often unenforceable regulation of the global sand industry has seen Singapore’s acquisition of sand go relatively undisturbed: a 2014 UNEP report into global sand mining observed a shortfall of 120 million tonnes between Indonesia’s reported sand exports to Singapore versus Singapore’s reported imports of Indonesian sand between 19. Owing to the economic and environmental burden Singapore’s sand imports placed on these countries, nations including Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam have since moved to ban exports to Singapore entirely. Export of Indonesian sand to expand the land area of Singapore has put at least 80 of Indonesia’s 17,508 islands at risk of disappearance due to sand extraction. Singapore had traditionally used sand from neighbouring states, before using up the resource and turning to importing from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. Singapore is the world’s largest importer of sand, owing to its land reclamation activities which have seen the city-state’s land area increase by 20% in 40 years. Sand mining is regulated in the country, but these regulations are difficult to enforce, and rumours of corruption undermine confidence in tackling sand mafia activity. In January of this year, 36-year-old Sangeeth Balan was bludgeoned to death with the arm of an earthmover when he resisted a gang of illegal sand miners who arrived at his residential compound with trucks and excavators. Sand mafias are a particular problem in India. Along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the UNEP says illegal sand miners “have transformed a large beach into a rocky landscape between Safi and Essaouira.” Indifferent to environmental regulations, their actions have caused untold environmental damage, with the UNEP warning that their activities are removing natural flood protections, exacerbating pressures on shorelines and riverbeds already threatened by climate change. So-called sand mafias – illegal and often violent sand miners – are groups that illegally dredge sand from prohibited areas. Sand is a vital resource, and can command a high price, so has attracted the attention of criminals. Police officers have been crushed to death, journalists burned, and protesters shot. A 2014 report by the UNEP estimated annual sand consumption somewhere between 47 and 59 billion tonnes, but that figure is based on a proxy: we can track cement production far more easily, and every ton of cement requires between six and seven times that amount of sand to produce. Existing regulation isn’t doing enoughĭespite forming the bulk of mining activity, and being one of the top traded commodities by sheer volume, aggregates are highly unregulated. So ravenous we are for that material that coastlines are being eroded, ecosystems destroyed, and entire islands removed from maps in Indonesia. Here is where you’ll find silica sand, which is melted down to make glass for windows, windshields, and smartphone screens. The sand we need is the jagged, angular grains you might find in riverbeds and banks, in lakes and along shorelines. The grains have been weathered by wind, leaving them smooth and rounded – and impossible to work into concrete, which the overwhelming majority of harvested sand is used for. The problem with desert sand is that it is functionally useless.
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