By Rakiya A.Muhammad
Unsustainable extraction and attendant environmental and social issues remain a lingering global concern for sand, noted as the second most used resource globally after water.
In a 2022 report on climate and environment, the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP cautioned on sand use, which he said was faster than it can naturally replenish. It underscored the need to use sand resources wisely, given that they are not infinite.
“The world uses 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel each year, enough to build a wall 27 metres wide and 27 metres high around the planet,” it said.
“The world cannot continue to take 50 billion tonnes of sand out of the ground and sea every year without serious consequences.”
UNEP pointed out that extracting sand from rivers and coastal or marine ecosystems can lead to erosion, salination of aquifers, loss of protection against storm surges and impacts on biodiversity, posing a threat to livelihoods, including water supply, food production or fisheries and the tourism industry.
It stressed the need to recognise sand as more than a construction material but a strategic resource with multiple roles in the environment, delivering ecosystem services, vital infrastructure for economic development, providing livelihoods within communities and maintaining biodiversity.
In Nigeria, sand remains a significant natural resource with rising demand. The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics Mineral Production Statistics Report 2021 listed sand as one of the country’s four most mined minerals.
However, unregulated activities have been a significant concern, with many blaming indiscriminate sand mining along the shores for major erosions and the destruction of coastal ecosystems. Many farmers have also lamented the reduction in agricultural output because of the effect of sand mining on arable lands.
Also, there have been concerns over the threat of illegal sand mining to the integrity of gas pipelines.
The West African Gas Pipeline Company, WAPCo, battled illegal sand miners for years because of the gas pipeline Right of Way.
At an annual workshop, the company noted that activities of illegal sand miners posed severe environmental problems such as land degradation, loss of agricultural lands and fire disasters that could result from the vandalisation of gas pipelines buried deep in the grounds.
Studies show sand mining remains a thriving business in Nigeria because it provides quick access to income and is financially more rewarding than farming yet requires no special skills, with many embracing it given the unemployment problem in the country.
A 2022 report commissioned by Global Rights, an international human rights capacity-building organisation, blamed Nigeria’s widespread illegal mining activities on the Federal government’s failure to regulate the industry adequately.
It also identified poverty, high criteria and cost of formalising operation and the lucrative nature of illegal mining.
Executive Director of Global Rights Abiodun Baiyewu observes that artisanal mining makes up about 70 per cent of all mining activities in West Africa and over 80 per cent in Nigeria. He added that most of the laws in Nigeria have less than 10 per cent of them that have provisions that pertain to artisanal mining.
“Nigeria’s losing about $9 billion to leakages in the mining sector annually, and a lot of the $9 billion is from artisanal mining. People also collect licenses from the cadastral mining office and franchise it off to artisanal miners,” she noted.
“There is a lot of confusion in the industry about illegal, unregulated, and informal mining.”
She suggested providing strong regulations and access to funding for the sector.
Stakeholders in the mining sector have also urged the strengthening of synergy between relevant institutions dealing with natural resources to coordinate awareness, monitor, and regulate activities within the industry.
However, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilekun Adegbite, expressed the federal government’s commitment to tackle illegal mining, adding that collaboration among various stakeholders had become necessary because of the rising cases of such activities.
A recent UNEP report on Sand and Sustainability offered ten strategic recommendations as guidance on governing and managing sand resources in a responsible, sustainable and just way.
The report recommended the recognition of sand as a strategic resource that delivers critical ecosystem services and underpins the construction of vital infrastructures in expanding towns and cities globally.
It urged the adoption of strategic and integrated policy and legal frameworks in tune with local, national and regional realities and establishing ownership and access to sand resources through mineral rights and consent.
The UNEP initiative called for mapping, monitoring and reporting sand resources for transparent science-based and data-driven decision-making and establishing best practices, national standards, and a coherent international framework.
It recommended the promotion of resource efficiency and circularity by reducing the use of sand, substituting it with viable alternatives and recycling products made of sand when possible.
The leading global voice in the environment also advocated sourcing responsibly by actively and consciously procuring sand in an ethical, sustainable and socially conscious way.
Part of the recommendations also included restoring ecosystems and compensating for remaining losses by advancing knowledge, mainstreaming the mitigation hierarchy and promoting nature-based solutions.
