Sand mining: The world scenario

Abstract

River sand mining is widespread in most of the developing and developed countries. Of the different types of fluvial systems, small rivers (catchment area <10,000 km2) are the worst affected due to indiscriminate sand mining than large rivers as the area available for dissipation of negative externalities is low in small river basins. This chapter deals with a brief account of the environmental effects of river sand mining reported from different parts of the world like Arizona, Italy, Kenya, Jamaica and Costa Rica, Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and India.