The world is expected to soon face another crisis: Shortage of sand. The most-extracted solid material in the world, and second-most used global resource behind water, sand's use is largely ungoverned. This means that we are consuming it faster than it can be replaced by geological processes that take hundreds of thousands of years.
Due to the unrestricted use of sand, Kenya-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued a warning. "We now find ourselves in the position where the needs and expectations of our societies cannot be met without improved governance of sand resources," Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, director of the Economy Division at UNEP said in the report's foreword. "If we act now, it is still possible to avoid a sand crisis."
Global consumption for use in glass, concrete and construction materials has tripled over two decades to reach 50 billion tonnes a year, or about 17 kilogrammes per person each day, it said, harming rivers and coastlines and even wiping out small islands.
Why sand matters?
Sand is the most used material in the world. Whether it's about building concrete structures, walls of even glass, sand is used everywhere. Due to increased consumption, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped of sand, resulting in an environmental crisis.
Sand performs key role in regulating the environment - by protecting from storm surges, acting as a habitat for a number of species and even protecting against erosion.
Unregulated use of sand will disturb ecologically sensitive areas and put stress on biodiversity.
What the UNEP report says?
The report, released last week, called for urgent action to avert a "sand crisis," including a ban on beach extraction.
UNEP's Pascal Peduzzi who coordinated the report written by 22 authors said that some of the impacts of over-exploitation were already being felt. In the Mekong River - the longest in Southeast Asia - sand extraction was causing the delta to sink, leading to salinisation of previously fertile lands.
In a Sri Lankan river, sand removal had reversed the water flow, meaning that ocean water was heading inland and bringing salt-water crocodiles with it, he told journalists.
Finally, removing sand from coastal areas can make coastlines more vulnerable to the impact of climate change, such as more powerful storms, according to the report.
How does sand form?
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US Department of Commerce, sand forms when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over thousands, and even millions of years. Rocks take time to decompose, especially quartz (silica) and feldspar.
Often starting thousands of miles from the ocean, rocks slowly travel down rivers and streams, constantly breaking down along the way, the NOAA said.
The tan colour of most sand beaches is the result of iron oxide, the agency added.
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