Global sand crisis: extraction outpaces replenishment, UN warns

Malé, one of the world’s most overcrowded cities, faces dual pressures: a growing population and rising sea levels due to climate breakdown that are shrinking its living space.

The justification for a land reclamation project seemed clear: take sand from elsewhere in the archipelago to build up land for Malé’s residents. After all, it’s only sand, right?

Globally, urban development and industry consume 50bn tonnes of sand annually, a figure expected to rise. A new UN report warns that sand is being extracted faster than it can be replenished, threatening livelihoods, ecosystems, and the natural world’s structure.

Pascal Peduzzi, director of the UN Environment Programme’s Global Resource Information Database in Geneva, which prepared the report, said: “Sand is sometimes referred to as the unrecognised hero of development, but its essential role in sustaining the natural services on which we depend is even more overlooked. Sand is our first line of defence against sea level rise, storm surges, and salination of coastal aquifers – all hazards exacerbated by climate change.”

As the most extracted solid material on Earth, sand is mined for concrete production, building foundations and masonry to construct homes, roads and sea walls. It is used to manufacture windows, silicon chips and solar panels. But left in place, it regulates rivers, protects coastal aquifers, filters water and sustains biodiversity.

The report argues that demand exists for sand in both its “dead” and “alive” states, each in competition.

In 2019, the Maldives government commissioned a Dutch company to fill the lagoon on the island of Gulhifalhu, near Malé. The 192-hectare (475-acre) land reclamation required 24.5m cubic metres of sand dredged from 13.75 sq km of northern Malé atoll. Six months later, an environmental assessment concluded the damage would be irreversible, but contracts were already signed.

The Gulhifalhu project destroyed 200 hectares of coral reef and lagoon habitat, including marine protected areas (MPAs), according to the UN report. The UN found that about half of dredging companies operated in MPAs, accounting for 15% of dredged sand volume.

The report said the result would be loss of critical habitats for fish, turtles, birds, crabs, and other species supporting ecosystems, fisheries and tourism. It stated: “Land reclamation inevitably leads to the permanent modification of the substrate, the destruction of flora and fauna, and coastal erosion.”

In the Philippines, dredging 155m cubic metres of sand for a 1,700-hectare airport project devastated fishing communities. After the floor of Manila Bay was scraped away, fish did not return. In South Sulawesi, Indonesia, dredging 22m cubic metres of sand in prime fishing grounds for another urban development cut fishing communities’ incomes by 80%.

According to UNEP, solving the dilemma of sand extraction – whether it is better to take it or leave it – requires overhauling governance processes. Planners need better data, mapping and monitoring to identify areas of high ecological value, but must also offer greater transparency and adhere more faithfully to environmental rules.

The Maldives is particularly exposed. With more than 80% of its land mass less than a metre above sea level, it is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. Without building up its islands, it will be overrun.

But even if that fate is averted, Malé’s inhabitants face a bleak future. According to a technical analysis of the Gulhifalhu land-use plan, accounting for infrastructure allocation at expected population density, the new land mass is engineered for nothing less than “urban disaster.”