Sustainable sand mining: Fresh guidelines call for reducing consumption

The Union environment ministry has released fresh guidelines to promote sustainable sand mining by “reducing its consumption” and tapping “alternative sources” like sand deposits at the base of dams, which would also enhance the dams’ storage capacity.

The ministry has also suggested substituting sand with recycled building material and quarry dust. To lower dependency on sand, it noted that architects and engineers should be trained to use these alternates, besides coming up with positive incentives.

“Because sand is still very cheap – sand itself is freely accessible (and) only extraction and transportation costs need to be covered – there is little or no incentive to induce a change in our consumption. Despite the very high value of minerals found in sand, it is mostly used for concrete or is buried under highways,” noted the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines 2016 that were released by the ministry of Environment last week.

It added: “Alternate sources, like sand accumulated at the bottom of dams, could be tapped as it would also address the problem of these aggregates leading to reduced capacity of dams to store water, which results in the dams’ water intakes being blocked.

“Dams, therefore, have to regularly release large amounts of water to flush out aggregates.” The guidelines also observed: “Recycled building and quarry dust (generated during excavations) material can be a substitute for sand. Concrete rubble should also be recycled to avoid using aggregates, at least for low-quality uses. Substitutes for sand are available.” “Renewable and recycled materials need to be targeted for building houses and roads,” it added. It further said that training of architects and engineers, new laws and regulations, and positive incentives were needed to initiate a shift for lowering the nation’s dependency on sand.

The ministry has also urged the Bureau of Indian Standards, the country’s national standard body, to promote usage of these alternatives of sand and gravel considering their scarcity. Some other evolving alternatives for sand listed by the ministry in the guidelines are slag, waste from steel industry; fly ash, waste from thermal power plants; crushed, over-burnt bricks; and tiles, waste from clay brick and tile industries, for plain cement concrete.