
Sand Theft - 2Pacalypse-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft
======
Cherian
My home state Kerala in India is subject to rampant sand mining.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b20dlI0_ZtU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b20dlI0_ZtU)
Ironically, we fuel this via demand for coarse sand in construction.

The impact is immediate. Rivers are drying up and water beds are going deeper
down:
[https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/sand...](https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/sandmining-
sound-the-death-knell-for-the-bharathapuzha/article3462733.ece)

~~~
spectramax
This is infuriating. The video shows just how casual this whole enterprise is.
It would be a piece of cake to enforce laws and shut this down elsewhere, the
only way this makes sense is that there is deep rooted corruption?

~~~
vsskanth
Yeah in India local politicians and higher level members of the state
government profit from this

~~~
rohan_shah
The bjp government along with police is trying to use Satellite surveillance
to stop sand mining. But it's only partially working...

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scrollaway
Ah, a fellow Half as Interesting viewer :)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BApuzIPVTi8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BApuzIPVTi8)

This is a channel run by the same guy from Wendover Productions, highly
recommend subscribing. Especially if you're into obscure things such as sand
theft, or … really, anything aviation related.

~~~
Mengkudulangsat
I wonder if there are any research towards adapting desert sand for use in
concrete? It would solve this "problem" in a jiffy.

~~~
ChoGGi
Desert sand is rounded, river sand is spiky.

~~~
TheSoftwareGuy
I've wondered if we could melt the desert sand into glass and use machines to
get it back down to the right coarseness.

It's one of the ways I think widely available & cheap renewable energy would
help solve most of the worlds resource shortages

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m-i-l
Also happened in London until 1871, although technically it wasn't theft as it
was from common land which had the right to dig confirmed in 1780:

"During the 19th century, there was an increasing demand for the high quality
Bagshot Sand, for use in building and iron foundry casts. In response to this
demand ... Eight loads a day in 1814 rose to thirty loads a day in 1866. ...
[By 1871] The whole space on the summit of the hill, to the right and the left
of the high road ... has been ruthlessly dug up for gravel and sand; leaving a
dreary, desert prospect of hideous pits and shapeless heaps as far as the view
extends over the hill itself, with a few miserable furze bushes here and
there, a ragged tuft of dusty ling; but without one square yard of verdant
turf for a baby to roll on. The very body of the earth had been cut away to an
amazing depth, with the entire surface of those parts of the heath which
formed the brow and crown of the hill. Holes are scooped out close to the high
road thirty feet or forty feet deep ..."[0]

[0] [https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-
spaces/ha...](https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-
spaces/hampstead-heath/heritage/Pages/sand-digging-at-the-heath.aspx)

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darkengine
What I found most interesting about this article is Singapore's practice of
buying an incredible amount of sand and using it to make more Singapore.

I made sure to read the cited source because this claim sounded way too
similar to some past Wikipedia edit pranks.

~~~
mensetmanusman
I selfishly hope that the practice gets banned so that Singapore is forced to
figure out how to engineer floating cities (they have the skill set!)

~~~
ballenf
Wouldn’t that have a very different effect with regard to the country’s
borders? The sovereign zone wouldn’t get extended for a large flagging
dock/boat I wouldn’t think.

~~~
mensetmanusman
Maybe they could build underwater on the sea-floor?

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jonah-archive
See in particular this fascinating recent article regarding GPS jamming and
sand theft in the port of Shanghai:
[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614689/ghost-ships-
crop-c...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614689/ghost-ships-crop-circles-
and-soft-gold-a-gps-mystery-in-shanghai/)

~~~
duelingjello
EDIT: I read some other, more complete sources, it looks like jamming.

Disclaimer: I worked at Trimble Nav Ltd. in the radio group.

In general, GPS errors could also be caused by:

\- PRC MIL jamming non-military non-BeiDou positioning systems to prevent
drone or cruise missile attacks

\- US MIL increasing Selective Availability (SA) on or disabling the
unencrypted signal for a region

\- Physical obstructions: trees, buildings, etc.

You'd think huge ships would have laser ring gyro INS and
GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou as a backup? Depending on a locally-jammable,
unencrypted data monoculture (GPS) for multiple critical systems is a SPOF and
insane.

~~~
khuey
Selective Availability is on its way out. In addition to being disabled for 20
years, supposedly the new 3rd generation GPS satellites were built without the
capability.

~~~
XorNot
Also most of the US GPS guided ordnance cannot function when selective
availability is enabled.

The reality is that cheap GPS chips enable so much more capability then the
risk of your enemy benefiting from a mapping system.

~~~
Animats
JDAMs apparently have had an inertial system for backup for some time. MEMS
gyros are good enough to guide from release to target. DARPA has quietly been
working on compact, low-cost guidance without GPS for a while.[1] Doesn't seem
to have filtered down to the commercial market yet, and that's probably not an
accident.

[1] [https://www.darpa.mil/program/micro-technology-for-
positioni...](https://www.darpa.mil/program/micro-technology-for-positioning-
navigation-and-timing/inertial-sensors)

------
aaron695
Wiki either mistakenly changed the title from "Beach Theft" to "Sand theft" or
doesn't understand the issue.

Sand theft is common. It's normally stolen by illegally dredging rivers.

Singapore 'stealing' sand from Asian countries has been systematically going
on for years.

It's the same as theft of wood. Everywhere where there are corrupt government
officials, it's organised crime, sometimes people die over it, and it's easy
to go watch while having a beer.

Beach theft, which the wiki currently predominantly talks about is different.

------
wefarrell
Planet money had an episode about this:
[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/epis...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/episode-853-peak-
sand)

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maury91
In Sardinia (Italy) we have a similar problem, many tourists steals beach sand
as a souvenir. The number of tourists that does this is so big that some
beaches got smaller, and goverment has choose to put a stop by giving huge
fines and possibly jail time.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=sardinian+sand+theft](https://www.google.com/search?q=sardinian+sand+theft)

~~~
qwerty456127
A classic example of how boring governments are. All they can do is ban, fine
and imprison. If I were the governor I'd just import the sand from Sahara and
include the expenses (as well as some reasonable profit) in the beach entrance
fee. They are going to have to import it anyway, why not just accept the
reality and turn the problem into business?

~~~
maury91
I hope you are joking. The sand that is stolen is not just any sand, people
steals that sand because it's different, for example, some sand is pink, some
is made by small quartz stones, some is red, some is black. Replacing it with
generic Sahara sand will result in a "new" beach, and is not what we want. We
want to stop people from taking the sand, not make a business out of it.

~~~
qwerty456127
A spoiler: The people won't stop. No matter how hard you ban.

~~~
harimau777
I don't think they need to stop it completely. They just need to reduce it
enough that it doesn't outpace the beach's ability to replenish the sand.

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osipov
Just wait until someone figures out that rising sea levels in the countries
near Singapore were due to faulty measurements caused by sand theft.

~~~
anonu
This is fascinating science. Can you explain more?

~~~
cookie_monsta
From what I understand it is a side effect of people trying to add curvature
to the Earth's flat surface.

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newmac
There is a rocky beach near where I live in Halifax Nova Scotia that was once
a very large sand beach. It was mostly "taken" for highway and other
construction:
[http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/01/25865/hudak...](http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/01/25865/hudak_magen_l_masters_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)

"However, from as early as the 1940s, the beach was also the site of
commercial resource extraction. Because of this, by 1966, it had ceased to
operate as a fully functional recreational site. Rapid and dramatic changes to
its geomorphological formation, due to the large-scale removal of its sand and
gravel, saw the gradual reduction of Silver Sands’ once ‘silvery’ crest, into
a predominantly rocky shoal. Particularly between the latter half of the 1950s
and the mid 1960s, but all the way until 1971, its material was being used for
various government construction projects around the Halifax Regional
Municipality.

"

------
mkoryak
I am not surprised.

I built a 6x6x2 foot sandbox for my son and was pleasantly surprised that it
would cost me around $720 to fill it with play sand from home depot. Maybe
there is a way to get 'play sand' in bulk that I am not aware of. Most bulk
sand you can buy is construction sand and isn't actually sand but ground up
rocks and is very bad for playing with.

~~~
werdnapk
I just built a 5x5 box for my kids and was also surprised by the cost of the
play sand. Did a little shopping around though and I think I spent $200 CDN to
fill the box. Most places I think were selling for $10-13/bag, but I ended up
finding $5/bag play sand.

~~~
XorNot
Buying by the bag is the problem right there. All these things get so much
cheaper if you can transport 1 tonne bulka-bags. 20/40kg bags of anything all
cost about the same because the bagging is the cost.

The trouble unless you're tooled up for it, 1 tonne bags are near impossible
to move, and double in price to have delivered, where they are still
impossible for you to move except incrementally.

Interestingly the 1.5 tonne tray capacity on the Cybertruck would be appealing
for exactly that reason - you'd actually have a vehicle which can actually
carry that (ute I borrowed from my inlaws caps out at 750kgs).

~~~
vidarh
Case in point: In the UK I can buy 20kg bags of sand from Amazon for
~10-20GBP, or a 1000kg for ~50 GBP. Both including delivery. I still ended up
buying a bunch of 20kg bags last summer, exactly for the reasons you point out
- 1 ton was too much and impossible for me to move other than by bagging it up
myself...

------
dirtyid
This is a topic with very scant literature. I'm curious if there's an account
of global sand reserves. Unlike oil/shale, other mineral resources, it seems
like available construction sand is basically all discovered by virtue of
being on the surface. I'm wondering if there are predictions for peak sand,
what current sand reserves translates to in total tons of future concrete
production etc. Otherwise it seems like the kind of resource that need to
managed properly, seeing how land reclamation projects will be increasingly
necessary with raising water levels. Engineered timbre can replace some
building needs, but I can't think of an alternative to concrete for other
critical infrastructure like roads.

~~~
Nasrudith
Sand is also renewable - it ie created by erosion continously. Although the
volume is likely insufficient. If a holy grail of cheap enough energy grinding
solid rock through some means could theoretically produce the desired grained
sand at an affordable price.

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valgaze
Not “theft” but interesting sand activities:
[https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/2/20/...](https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/2/20/Waikiki_beach_sand)

“Erosion and rising sea levels have swallowed a foot of Waikiki Beach annually
since 1985. This phenomenon, while accelerated in the last few decades, is
nothing new. Reports from the 1920s and 1930s reveal that sand was brought in
from Manhattan Beach, California, via ship and barge, to Waikiki Beach.
Importation of sand into Hawaii ceased in the 1970s.”

------
duelingjello
_The 'sand mafia' fuelling India's $120 billion building boom (2017)_

[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-28/the-great-sand-
heist-...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-28/the-great-sand-heist-
fuelling-india-120-billion-building/8390984)

 _India 's Sand Mafia: The Dark Secrets of India's Construction Industry
(2017, video)_ by Journeyman Pictures, and recommended by ABC Australia

[https://youtu.be/ugT-zyXGNIY](https://youtu.be/ugT-zyXGNIY)

------
m463
I wonder if sand is only found on the intersection of water and land, or if it
found throughout the ocean (just inconveniently under the water)

Also, on a humorous note:

Geologists: 'We May Be Slowly Running Out Of Rocks'

[https://www.theonion.com/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-
running...](https://www.theonion.com/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-running-out-
of-rocks-1819571484)

~~~
TheGallopedHigh
I believe the sand theft taking place is done as the sand is good for
construction. Namely jagged enough for aggregate (hence why the can’t use
smooth sand from the desert). The shape of the sand is primarily caused by the
motion of the water.

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Bubbadoo
Sand theft is very rampant on Long Island. On the north shore, where there
have been a slew of high-density developments built, first thing developers do
is scrape all of the sand from the lot. Some projects are actually built on
what was once sandy bluffs. The sand indigenous to LI is a fine sugar sand,
valued for it's quality in concrete manufacture. There are entire lots where
sand is excavated and then left for drainage issues. As one can guess, sand
mining is heavily regulated and usually prohibited by law. The sand acts as a
filter as water leaches down to recharge the aquifer where most of LI gets
it's drinking water from.So think about that... they're destroying the land's
ability to provide potable water because of greed. Yes, the aquifer fresh
water levels are decreasing and pollution plumes are growing. As the fresh
water level goes down, it acts to suck salt water into the aquifer.

------
3dprintscanner
The 99% Invisible podcast ran a good episode on this subject, and particularly
the effects of sand theft. [https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-on-
sand/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-on-sand/)

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vijaybritto
I'm from Tamilnadu state in south India and I have seen this happen. This is
called _manarkollai_ and its so rampant. There are some activist groups trying
to make a difference and it has resulted in very little progress. Immediate
substitution to coarse river sand is needed!

------
sigmaprimus
First off I think this is terrible, people and companies that take part in
these practices including the purchasers should be caught and punished. That
being said, this reminds me of a story about people taking the pebbles from
the island the ABBA movie Mama Mia was filmed and to some extent the planet
Bethselamin in the book HHG2G.

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masonic
A Mexican company has been stealing tons of sand from Monterey (CA) beaches
for years:

[https://www.theinertia.com/environment/stealing-sand-the-
the...](https://www.theinertia.com/environment/stealing-sand-the-theft-of-
californias-coast/)

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FrozenVoid
Wasn't there a startup few years ago that made desert sand usable for
construction? What happened?

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csense
Isn't sand made of silicon, which is one of the most common elements on Earth?
I don't quite understand why it's scarce enough that stealing it's viable.

~~~
lm28469
Diamonds are made of carbon which is also very common... But more seriously:
different sands have different properties, and when you need a shit ton of
something no matter how cheap it is stealing is always cheaper.

------
kendallpark
See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment)

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stebann
It would be interesting to relate this practices with the mafia's construction
companies and building materials theft in grand.

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jokoon
In construction, are bricks a good alternative to concrete?

~~~
2rsf
They are complementing each other, concrete is a terrible heat insulator, hard
to work with (requires molds and steel reinforcements), heavier than bricks
which requires a stronger design, hard to live with (think of drilling, moving
walls), more expensive than bricks (depending on the exact usage though) and
gives no benefits over bricks in terms of strength.

Bricks are used to build the bulk of walls, and concrete is used in floors and
reinforcement of the walls and above/around doors and windows

~~~
jokoon
What are the other disadvantage of brick? I guess you cannot make 4+ stories
buildings with it?

~~~
dirtyid
Unreinforced masonry, like a church, are extremely inefficient in terms of
material and labor, think 6 foot deep walls that taper up to carry load.
Optimally, bricks work in conjunction with reinforced concrete skeleton for
modern construction. Cost is also a big factor, especially in developed
countries, more so for high quality finishes. There's a case for small brick
constructions in less developed countries with high unemployment and low
wages.

In terms of embodied energy, brick veneer (composite of materials with a layer
of exterior brick) typically have the best life-cycle ecological performance,
20%-60% better, compared to curtain wall (glass+steel) and precast concrete
panels, across many climates and regions. Engineered wood for buildings is
probably the better option in the long run. There's a lot of movement
recently, construction is a very slow and conservative industry though.
Probably need for results to be validated. A lot of claims are by industry
publications. But intuitively it feels right.

------
anonu
When I read such poorly written Wikipedia articles, I just remember how little
I should trust these things.

------
jotm
Related: Chernozem "theft". Ukraine is literally selling off its soil smh

------
andrepd
Yes, I did also just watch that HAI video... :)

