Because water is crucial to our survival, we’re usually conscious of the significance of saving this pure useful resource and of monitoring our day-to-day utilization of it.
But individuals are usually a lot much less conscious of the necessity to protect sand, the second most exploited useful resource after water, and one which’s additionally important to withstanding local weather change.
Some 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are used on the earth yearly.
This quantity of sand would be “sufficient to construct a wall 27m vast and 27m excessive round planet Earth”, estimates a brand new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). And, similar to water, sand just isn’t an infinitely renewable useful resource.
Why it is important to protect sand
Sand is the second most exploited pure useful resource on the earth. Its grains are primarily used as a uncooked materials to make concrete, asphalt or glass in building and associated industries.
Desert sand is much less enticing due to its wind-polished grains, that are thinner. It is due to this fact primarily the sand extracted from seashores and different coastal areas (lakes, estuaries, rivers) that’s underneath risk.
Indeed, the report states that many of the world’s main rivers have misplaced between half and 95% of their pure sand and gravel supply to oceans.
However, sea sand performs a necessary geological position, because it limits soil erosion.
The report’s authors state that conserving sand on coasts might be essentially the most cost-effective technique for adapting to local weather change due to the way it helps shield towards storm surges and impacts from sea-level rise.
These sorts of providers, the authors argue, ought to be factored into its worth.
Creating a round financial system for sand
Unlike water, few official laws are in place to make sure an affordable use of sand.
This is an actual social and environmental downside, since this useful resource is topic to main trafficking and unlawful extraction, producing conflicts and inflicting insecurity for the inhabitants in some international locations, as is the case in India or Morocco.
To battle towards these “sand mafias” and protect the atmosphere of coastal landscapes, the UN report places ahead a number of options and attracts up an inventory of particular measures.
For instance, setting a world commonplace to manage the usage of sand, establishing a hard and fast value for sand primarily based on its actual social and environmental worth, making a “round financial system for sand” by encouraging the reuse of this useful resource or banning the extraction of sand on seashores and the landfilling of mineral waste. – AFP
