- Unep estimates over 50 billion tones of sand and gravel are mined per year globally to meet soaring demand.
- Unsustainable sand mining also poses a risk to rivers across the globe and to the people, economies and nature that depend on them.
Sand harvesting is a threat to land meant for agriculture, the National Environmental Complaints Committee has said.
NECC secretary John Chumo said every day dozens of trucks roar into construction sites delivering sand and gravel, leaving acres of destroyed farmland in their wake.
“As the country’s construction industry continues to boom, the demand for sand has soared to record levels. This continues to put pressure on agricultural land and other sources of sand nationwide, prompting sand harvesters to invade farms for the commodity,” Chumo said.
NECC has investigated cases of unsustainable sand harvesting in Homa Bay, Makueni, West Pokot, Machakos, Trans Nzoia and other parts of Kenya.
NECC provides alternative dispute resolution mechanisms relating to environmental matters.
The committee makes recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary and thus contributes to formulation of environmental policy.
Chumo said Unep estimates that over 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are mined per year to meet soaring demand, making it the largest extractive industry on the planet.
He said unsustainable sand mining also poses a risk to rivers across the globe and to the people, economies and nature that depend on them.
“Over the years, Kenyans have engaged in uncontrolled sand mining in riverbeds at a rate that outpaces natural replenishment. They have depleted sand deposits in the rivers of counties surrounding the capital, Nairobi,” he said.
Chumo said scarcity has left sand miners with no option but to dredge for sand on farmland, an illegal business that has fuelled the construction industry but threatens the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale farmers.
He said illegal sand harvesting has destroyed vegetation, reduced fertile land and farm productivity and exposed communities to food insecurity.
“Actually, out of a five-acre farm only an acre is under production while the rest have been turned to pits and trenches and can’t be put to agricultural use.”
He said extraction of sand on farms is not about to end soon, despite the enactment of the Sand Harvesting Act in 2014, which seeks to regulate the activity.
The National Environment Management Authority legislation on sand mining at the national and county levels needs to be implemented to regulate the industry.
The law restricts sand mining to between 6am and 6pm but illegal miners avoid arrest by harvesting at night.
The Act states that on-farm sand harvesting shall only be undertaken by open-cast harvesting method and no underground tunnelling or extraction of sand shall be undertaken.
A local sand harvester fetches between Sh 15,000 and Sh20,000 per lorry.
Chumo said sand harvesting activities in West Pokot county at Mtembur and Kanyarkwar areas have led to destruction of roads and bridges.
He said high tonnage lorries plying the routes have put too much pressure on newly constructed roads.
Unsustainable sand mining contributes to bank erosion and shrinking, with the loss of agriculture land, houses and infrastructure including collapse of roads, dykes and bridges.
NECC raised the concern days after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said Nema had failed to ensure that quarries are decommissioned, rehabilitated and restored.
“The uncontrolled and inefficient environmental management of quarrying activities has led to land degradation which in some cases may be irreversible. The uncontrolled quarrying activities have caused significant impact on the environment such as soil erosion, loss of fertility and productivity, diminishing value of land and river siltation,” Gathungu said in an audit report.