Kiran Pereira on the Global Sand Crisis

Sand is the world’s most extracted and traded natural resource other than water, and the main ingredient in concrete, asphalt, and glass. The United Nations Environment Programme describes the overuse of sand as "one of the major sustainability challenges of the 21st century".

In this Voices conversation, Annabel Short of IHRB’s Built Environment Programme talks with Kiran Pereira of Sand Stories, an organisation dedicated to exploring the human and environmental impacts of sand extraction. Kiran shares why and how industry, governments, and investors need to pay urgent attention to the impacts of sand mining – an overlooked non-renewable resource. 

As construction of cities and infrastructure continues to boom, Kiran is documenting the human and environmental costs of sand mining – from the killings of activists by sand “mafias”, to the loss of homes and livelihoods, to major impacts on biodiversity and climate. She is also highlighting multiple innovative approaches to reduce the use of sand and to develop and scale up the use of sand alternatives.

For more information, see sandstories.org and UNEP’s report “Sand and Sustainability: Finding new solutions for environmental governance of global sand resources”

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