What if sand did not exist anymore ? What would our favourite swim spots, our holiday photos, our sandcastles be like ? Whenever we go on holidays, we do not have the slightest suspicion that this unsustainable resource could disappear by 2100. While the dredging projects are every day more numerous, they delay and worsen the issue of coastal erosion. Report on this worrisome phenomenon.
The invisible hero of our daily lives
You may have just come back from your holidays or you may be part of the lucky ones that had the opportunity to stay a little longer on the seaside ? Then, this is the appropriate moment to tell you about the second most used natural resource in the world after water and ever-present in our everyday lives: sand.
Glass, paint, bank cards, computers, cosmetics, reinforced concrete, rubber, etc. Sand is a key component in many products by its very technical properties and its cheapness. But, its over-consumption entails disastrous consequences on environment such as erosion, the disappearance of beaches and islands and the sea ecosystems’ imbalance.
The Ocean, a great sandman
Most of the sand is extracted from the Ocean thanks to a mechanism called sand dredging – you can imagine it as a gigantic vacuum cleaner that does not differentiate between sand and living organisms. Desert sand is not suitable for the purposes cited above because its grains are smooth and round, so they do not ensure the durability of the buildings. On the contrary, grains of sand extracted from the sea are stickier and aggregate well to each other enabling the buildings to be robust in the long run.
The most demanding sector in sand is construction. Sand when added to cement makes reinforced concrete. In order to build an average house, 200 tons of sand are needed, for an hospital it is 3 000 tons, and for one kilometre of highway, 30 000 tons. Like water, 15 billion tons of sand are used every year. The exploitation of this unsustainable resource started in the 1970s and has been growing exponentially ever since. Every day, between 4 000 and 400 000 m3 of sand are extracted from the seabed by dredging vessels.
The perverse effects of an overconsumption
The exponentially growing demand is echoing our excessive consumption – our production models are thought to reduce the economic costs but never the ecological ones. Sand dredging is the starting point to most of the harmful impacts mentioned above. Fauna and flora are sucked and eliminated. The seabed is vital because the species living there constitute the basis of the marine foodchain. The survival of the ecosystem depends on this utmost element. Sand dredging disturbs the natural balance and the action of the waves and of the ocean currents allowing the heavy metals to resurface. Coral reefs and fish are affected as well although they contribute to the sustainability of other species and of the local communities, as well as their autonomy. This technique has an impact on the rising of sea levels and on climate change. Similarly, sand exploitation is involved in the intensification of river flooding, the disfigurement of the landscapes, and in the disappearance of beaches and islands. Nature compensates this plundering of sand with the one available on the shore. Thus, beaches migrate landward and the trend is accelerating – coastal erosion threatens 90% of the beaches of the world, and 25 Indonesian islands have already disappeared.
Lastly, the excess of sand consumption leads to an increase in demand and thus to a price inflation, which combined with the lack of control of the authorities results in the development of all sorts of sand traffic (mafia, black market). This illegal sand represents 40 to 45% of the overall consumption.
Insatiable customers
Singapore and Dubai are relentlessly seeking to increase their surface by gaining ground on the sea. The projects called « The Palm » and « The World » show the breakneck quest towards the inevitable – taking sand on the seabed to supply the shores will only worsen the problem.
In Florida, 9 beaches over 10 are endangered. The municipalities are spending fortunes to preserve the seaside which is a source of major tourist attraction, but the solutions implemented do not seem to be effective.
Less exotic examples
Massive sand extractions damage European countries’ coastline among which France’s. For example, in April 2015, former economy minister Emmanuel Macron authorised a project of sand extraction in the bay of Lannion (close from a Natura 2000 area), 7 kilometres only from Trébeurden. Attentive to the risks incurred by humans (direct and indirect local jobs) and marine ecosystems (fauna and flora), the collective « Peuple des Dunes en Trégor » (People of Tregor dunes), of which Surfrider Foundation is member, fights against the project considered as an additional source of danger for the coastline. The group asks the suspension of the decree until an alternative solution is assessed and a referendum is held in the 15 concerned municipalities before any start of the project.
Adding sand on the beaches responds solely to an economic approach. The same mistakes are still being repeated because whatever is done here will have an impact there. Let us not forget that sand is a unsustainable resource – it takes hundreds if not thousand of years for a grain of sand to be created (alteration and erosion process) and to reach the Ocean. All the more, with the multiplication of dams (impeding sand on its way), the road to the Ocean is even longer. It is essential to take well-thought measures that suit the context. Individually speaking, green alternatives to concrete do exist (clay concrete, wood, hemp, etc.), all you have to do is to request for information!
Laura Anty, Environmental Writer – Claire Chaufaux, Translator
