UNEP reveals coasts, sea life faces major threat due to massive sand removal

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau

UNITED NATIONS, 6th Sept. UN environment Programme on Tuesday in a new data platform revealed that the marine industry is extracting 6 billion tons of sand and sediment annually.

It noted that this is equivalent to over one million dump trucks every day placing immense pressure on marine biodiversity and the well-being of coastal communities.

Marine Sand Watch, a platform developed by UNEP analytical centre, GRID-Geneva, uses artificial intelligence and automatic signals from ships to track and monitor sand, clay, silt, gravel, and rock extraction in the world’s marine environments.

It delivers crucial information on sand extraction zones (sand concessions), capital and maintenance dredging sites, sand trading hubs, vessel counts, and operators at sea.

According to UNDP, the platform is a groundbreaking tool, it cannot detect artisanal and small-scale mining along shallow coastlines, despite its intensity in some regions.

Pascal Peduzzi, Director of GRID-Geneva at UNEP said “The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming, including biodiversity, water turbidity, and noise impacts on marine mammals”.

“This data signals the urgent need for better management of marine sand resources and to reduce the impacts of shallow sea mining,” he added.

He called on governments as well as the dredging sector to treat sand as a strategic material, and swiftly engage in talks on how to improve dredging standards worldwide.

The report stated between 4 and 8 billion tons of sediment are dredged annually from marine and coastal environments.

According to UNEP, this is “perilously” close to the natural replenishment rate of 10 to 16 billion tons per year necessary to sustain coastal and marine ecosystems.

The shallow sea mining for sand and gravel is vital for various construction projects they pose a major threat to coastal communities facing rising sea levels and storms.

UNEP added that sand extraction also endangers coastal and seabed ecosystems, impacting marine biodiversity, nutrients from the sea and noise pollution, as well as impacting aquifer salinization and future tourism development.

The agency noted that international practices and regulations vary widely with countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia have banned marine sand exports in the last two decades, others lack any legislation or effective monitoring programs.

UN agency’s 2022 Sand and Sustainability report called to enhance monitoring of sand extraction and use and recommended ending sand extraction from beaches and active beach-nearshore sand systems for mining purposes.

It called for new international standards governing marine sand extraction, the agency concluded.