According to statistics of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the world needs about 30-50 billion tons of sand every year. With this amount of sand, you could build a 20 meter wide road around the equator every year.
Global demand for sandy soil is increasing rapidly. In many parts of the world, even underground forces are ready to stab each other to possess this seemingly insignificant resource.
In India, gangsters threaten local people to illegally exploit and transport this type of resource. In Morocco and the Caribbean, sand thieves roam the shallows. International Monetary Fund (IMF) figures show that half of all sand used for construction in Morocco comes from illegal mining.
According to a study by Yale University, although it is not possible to accurately calculate the amount of illegal mining, the production accounts for 85% of the total global resource extraction each year, equivalent to more than 40 billion tons and becomes the world’s most exploited resource by weight.
In Germany, many farmers would rather sell sand than grow crops or trade in real estate, as they provide a faster and more profitable profit.
The total market value of sand mining is estimated at 70 billion USD and may be higher because it is difficult to quantify the source of illegal mining. With a total global construction market value that could reach trillion by 2025 and a growth rate of 6% per year, sand resources are bound to become more and more expensive.
As an inevitable consequence, it is sand mining that has led to unpredictable consequences due to natural disasters such as floods or climate change. This is also the main cause of increasing floods in the Mekong Delta and Southeast Asia as well as creating dryness and other changes in the region.
With the amazing growth of the Asian economy, the demand for sand in concrete mixing and asphalt making is increasing day by day and it is not surprising that Asia has become the hot market of the great war. sand industry. The largest economy in this region, China, accounts for 50% of the world’s demand for sand and soil when investing heavily in infrastructure. Between 2011 and 2014 alone, China built 32.3 million houses and 4.5 million kilometers of roads.
In addition to its great use in the construction industry, sandy soil is also widely used in industry as a key raw material for making glass, making electronic devices or playing an important role in oil extraction.
Especially in some countries like Singapore, sandy soil is also a strategic resource that needs to be stored to fill the sea and expand the mainland. Since the 1960s, Singapore has expanded by 20% thanks to this method and most of the sand is imported from neighboring countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand. Over the past 20 years, the country has imported about 517 million tons of sand.
China’s three years of sand mining are higher than that of the United States in a century.
On the other hand, islands like the Maldives or Kiribati also import sand to raise the ground against rising sea levels.
Worse, the United Nations (UN) forecasts that by 2030, the world will have more than 40 megacities with an average population of 10 million people each, higher than 31 megacities in 2016. In 2015 , about 54% of the population lives in urban areas and this proportion will reach 66% by 2050.
Since 1950, the urban population has quadrupled worldwide to 4 billion people, more than 50% of the total world population. Even the UN predicts that another 2.5 billion people will move to cities in the next 30 years.
This means that more houses and structures will be built and the demand for sand will increase even more. Please be reminded that for each ton of cement, we need 67 tons of raw sand and this is the main ingredient that helps to build all the buildings in the world.
In China alone, more than 500 million people live in urban areas, three times more than 60 years ago and equal to the combined urban populations of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
According to the Guardian, a sand trader in Shanghai-China can earn up to 200,000 USD/year thanks to the construction boom in big cities like this. Since 2000, the city has added 7 million people and has built more tall buildings than New York City in the past 10 years.
In addition, sea level is increasing due to climate change and sandy soil seems to be the most effective solution to deal with this situation.
So why is sandy soil so expensive when we see it everywhere? The reason is very simple, desert sand is too soft and slippery to be used for construction while industries require different types of sandy soil depending on needs.
Industries such as concrete or glazing all need sands located deep in the sea or in river beds. As a result, although sandy soil is everywhere, not all types are exploited for consumption. According to Forbes, the price of construction sand has increased 5 times in the past 40 years and has become a lucrative bait for many forces.
Besides, the cement industry also consumes a lot of sandy soil. The USGS survey showed that the cement industry in the US consumed about 11 billion tons of sand in 1994 and this number increased to 26 billion tons in 2012.
Worldwide, the cement industry’s output has tripled from 1.37 billion tons in 1994 to 3.7 billion tons in 2012. In which, the biggest increase is in Asia and China. Over the 20 years to 2013, China’s demand for cement has increased by 437.5%. Over the past few years, the country’s total cement use has been equal to the total used by the United States in the 20th century.
Another industry that is also increasingly using sandy soil is oil extraction as producers discover that using sand in shale oil production will help increase productivity. USGS data shows that the use of sand in US shale oil production has increased sharply from 5% in 2003 to 72% in 2014.
Usually, constructions don’t buy too expensive sand because they are not economical but use sand from nearby places, or from brokers. However, rich countries like Singapore or Qatar import a lot of sand for construction and sea filling. A lot of sandy soil in Australia has been transported by sea, through desert areas to build the famous Burj Khalifa tower of Dubai.
According to statistics of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the world needs about 30-50 billion tons of sand every year. With this amount of sand, you could build a 20 meter wide road around the equator every year.
Sand mining is the main cause of stronger floods as well as increasingly severe droughts and environmental changes.
Most countries now have regulations on where sand is allowed and how much sand is allowed. However, increasing demand makes illegal sand mining still widespread in many developing countries.
As a result of this situation, many areas are over-exploited and cannot regenerate naturally, thereby polluting the environment, destroying life sources and indirectly creating natural disasters. While sand mining is easy and quick, it takes the Earth thousands of years to get sand suitable for construction.
Spanish social activist Alex Gonzalez Davidson said that every year the sand industry trades about billion and at least billion comes from illegal mines.
Sand mining is simple, but the time it takes for the Earth to return to its original state is extremely long.
The case became more serious when Malaysia publicly tried many officials in 2010 for accepting bribes and protecting illegal sand mining gangs to sell to Singapore. The current main source of Singapore’s sand imports comes mainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. According to UNEP, due to land reclamation, per capita, Singapore is the country that uses the most sand in the world today.
Not only Southeast Asia, China is also being heavily affected by sand mining. The Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi Province is famous for being an ecological habitat for many species of animals, but now things have changed when illegal sand mining has caused many species to disappear from this lake area. Meanwhile, fishermen around here are catching less and less because aquatic species have disappeared due to environmental pollution.
Meanwhile, in India, the illegal sand mining industry has become a difficult problem to solve when it leads to stabbings, killings, fighting for mining rights. The total amount of sand used for the construction industry every year has increased by an average of 300% since 2000 and continues to increase strongly.
Currently, the governments of other countries have had stronger policies on the sand mining industry, but perhaps the increasing demand for this resource is making the management more and more difficult. The easy and high cost of sand mining makes the gangs extremely reckless and corruption is also on the rise.
With the current mining momentum, in the not too distant future, it is probably not oil but water and sand that are the resources that lead to many conflicts in the world.