 Image caption, Desert sand is too smooth to bind to make concrete, so sand is taken from river beds such as the Mekong A crisis is engulfing the Mekong River, its banks are collapsing and half a million people are at risk of losing their homes. The entire ecosystem of this South East Asian river is under threat, all because of the world's insatiable demand for sand. Extracted from the bed of this giant river in Cambodia and Vietnam, sand is one of the Earth's most sought-after resources. Up to 50 billion tonnes are dredged globally every year - the largest extractive industry on the planet. "Extraction is happening at absolutely astronomical rates, we're having an industrial-scale transformation of the shape of the planet," says river scientist Prof Stephen Darby at Southampton University. His studies on the lower Mekong show its bed has been lowered by several metres in just a few years, over many hundreds of kilometres, all in the quest for sand. From highways to hospitals, sand is the essential component for industries as varied as cosmetics, fertilisers and steel production - and particularly for cement. The battle to curb our appetite for concrete In the last two decades demand has increased threefold, says the UN, fuelled by the race to build new towns and cities. China consumed more sand between 2011 and 2013 than the US did in all of the 20th Century, as it urbanised its rural areas. Sand is also used to bulk up landmass - Singapore is 20% bigger now than it was at the time of independence in 1965. "Every year we extract enough sand to build a wall 27m (89ft) high and 27m wide, all the way around the world," says Pascal Peduzzi of the United Nations Environment Programme. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, China's construction boom has led global demand for sand Not any old sand will do. Desert sand is too smooth and fine to make concrete. Nor is it the kind that is needed to make glass or be used in the){kind=link}
A crisis is engulfing the Mekong River, its banks are collapsing and half a million people are at risk of losing their homes.
The entire ecosystem of this South East Asian river is under threat, all because of the world’s insatiable demand for sand.
Extracted from the bed of this giant river in Cambodia and Vietnam, sand is one of the Earth’s most sought-after resources. Up to 50 billion tonnes are dredged globally every year – the largest extractive industry on the planet.
“Extraction is happening at absolutely astronomical rates, we’re having an industrial-scale transformation of the shape of the planet,” says river scientist Prof Stephen Darby at Southampton University.
His studies on the lower Mekong show its bed has been lowered by several metres in just a few years, over many hundreds of kilometres, all in the quest for sand.