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as anyone who's ever gone in search of
the elder or tried to escape imatep will
know there's a lot of sand out there i
don't like sand
so you might be surprised to hear that
we're actually running out of it
yes
really the un is calling for urgent
action to avoid a sad crisis as
consumption has overtaken natural
replenishment just in case you thought
we didn't have enough to worry about
with climate change a pandemic and
everything else
we're now coming up short on a key
ingredient for the construction industry
so how do we get to this point and more
importantly what are we going to do
about it
let's start with the obvious sand is
really really useful so useful that it's
the second most consumed resource on
this planet after water it's used in
pretty much everything from cosmetics to
wine and computer chips but no industry
has more of a love affair with sand than
construction
it's used to create the steel in our
skyscrapers and glass in the windows we
look out of it's in the paint we use to
decorate our buildings and when they get
dirty we blast sand onto them to spruce
them up again but there's one thing that
hoover's up sand like no other
concrete
it's the bedrock of the industry and one
of the most widely used building
materials in the world
30 billion tons of it are produced every
year sand can form up to 60 percent of a
typical construction mix it's used to
bind cement and water now for all of you
thinking about the massive sahara desert
and wondering what the problem is well
here's the catch
desert sand that covers roughly a third
of the earth land surface is
completely useless
the gold two idea is is for sandisk is
the desert ramp
however sand drains from the desert they
are too rounded and they all have the
same size it's like ping-pong balls
really so imagine that you have a box of
ping-pong balls and you shake it it's
not going to come back and
that's why in 2014 despite being
surrounded by the staff dubai imported
nearly half a billion dollars worth of
sand to feed its construction boom
desert sand is formed by the wind
creating tiny smooth particles whereas
the sand found on riverbeds and
coastlines is ground down by water
producing a coarser grain which is
perfect for construction
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but it's the mining of this stuff that's
starting to have a major environmental
impact if we are extracting more sand
than is being supplied by those rivers
we are actually eroding our environment
we are impacting our natural resilience
against sea level rates we are invading
our soils in which we fall and we are
digging away the aquifers we drink from
in the u.s scientists recently connected
sand dredging in the san francisco bay
with the rapid erosion of nearby ocean
beach while over indonesia entire
islands have been disappearing due to
sand mining you see sand use has tripled
over the last two decades and that's
largely a result of global urbanization
and demand is only going to grow as
vital infrastructure projects are built
across the developing world
everything's being made worse by a lack
of planning as our use of sand has
continued to grow the infrastructure to
manage it as a resource hasn't kept up
with the exception of a few outliers
like dubai and singapore most countries
still produce and consume their own sand
it's not exported or shared around i
think less than three percent of the
sand gravel resources we move is being
transported over long longer distances
most sand comes from a radius of 50
kilometers so as a consequence it's
really dependent on the locality
because sand is seen as a local resource
it's increasingly mined from
unsustainable places in some cases
that's even led to organized crime gangs
cashing in on the industry illegal sand
mining has been reported in over 70
countries with devastating effects on
habitats and grim consequences for
anyone who dares to intervene it sounds
hard to believe but reports from india
show it's home to the world's deadliest
sand mafias
criminal gangster have burned
journalists alive hacked activists to
death and run over police officers with
trucks
there is this grey zone where people
extract the material without
environmental impact assessment without
proper monitoring and when this gets
organized then you can end up it's
organized trendy and this is what is
happening in several regions
the lack of regulation and localized
approach to sand extraction may be
producing devastating consequences but
it also offers a solution
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in april this year the un sand
observatory produced a strategy to deal
with the impending crisis and
international cooperation was high on
the agenda
if all stakeholders realize the true
value sam and we start planning well ah
in advance for the materials needs we
can make sure that the reserves we
require are there and and that no
material is wasted so at the one hand
it's about creating awareness at the
other hand it's about creating dialogue
breaking down silos the reports also
suggested technological solutions which
could help clean up another industry
with a pretty poor environmental track
record and mining is one of the the
biggest sources of mineral rates one of
the solutions that we envisaged is that
besides producing all they would
co-produce sand and gravel for local
construction the production of all sand
is increasingly being seen as a valuable
by-product from the mining industry
and one that avoids the generation of
hazardous waste known as tailings
instead of producing metals iron oil and
waste let's produce iron oil and let's
also
the material such that we can also
produce clean sand and gravel and as
such
dramatically reduce the amount of waste
that comes out of the money
this may be one of the best ways to
solve the problem at scale
i think the mining industry is on an
annual basis producing 12 billion tons
of tailings at the other hand we have 50
billion tons sand gravel and crushed
rock which is required by the
construction industry if you compare
that then we are in the same orders of
magnitude now there's no magic bullet to
solve the sand crisis but one thing is
clear construction and the built world
around us requires a lot of it and with
a little more awareness and
collaboration we just might be able to
make better use of the sand we do have
left before it's all too late
i am hopeful it's one of those crises
that is avoidable this is something we
can address and if we approach the such
we are already
i mean
very close to the solution
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you