The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says 50 billion tons of sand, enough to build a wall 27 metres wide and 27 metres high around planet Earth, are used annually, making it the most exploited resource in the world.

UNEP, in a report released from Geneva on Tuesday, stated that the volume of sand and gravel used each year makes it the second most used resource worldwide after water.

According to the report, given humans’ dependency on the sand, it must be recognised as a strategic resource.

UNEP noted that sand’s extraction and use need to be rethought.

The report, ‘Sand and Sustainability: 10 strategic recommendations to avert a crisis’, released by UNEP’s GRID-Geneva team, provided the necessary guidance gathered from world experts to switch to improved practices for the resource’s extraction and management.

“Extracting sand where it plays an active role, such as rivers, and coastal or marine ecosystems, can lead to erosion, salination of aquifers, loss of protection against storm surges and impacts on biodiversity,” it stated. “This can pose a threat to livelihoods through, among other things, water supply, food production, fisheries, or to the tourism industry.”

According to the report’s authors, sand must be recognised as a strategic resource, not only as a material for construction but also for its multiple environmental roles.

They stress that governments, industries, and consumers should price sand to recognise its true social and environmental value.

For example, they noted that keeping sand on coasts might be the most cost-effective strategy for adapting to climate change because it protects against storm surges and impacts from sea level rise – such services should be factored into its value.

The report proposed that an international standard on extracting sand from the marine environment should also be developed.

This, it stated, could bring about dramatic improvements as most marine dredging is done through public tenders open to international companies.

(NAN)