By Jolly Green

Sand mining is the extraction of sand, in Saint Vincent it is mined from beaches and dunes. Sand is used in concrete and for rendering or plastering.

Beach sand mining is a direct cause of erosion, and impacts the local wildlife. Disturbance of underwater and coastal sand causes turbidity in the water, which is harmful for organisms like coral that need sunlight. It can also destroy fisheries, financially harming the fishing industry.

Removal of physical coastal barriers, such as sand dunes as at Brighton, can lead to flooding of beachside communities, and the destruction of picturesque beaches causes tourism to dissipate. Sand mining is regulated by law in SVG, but is often done illegally. But regardless of laws to allow mining of beaches it is still immorally wrong and damaging to our tiny island.

Beach sand mining may well contribute to the construction of buildings and development. However, the negative effects of beach sand mining include the permanent loss of beaches in areas, as well as flooding and loss of major habitat.

At Brighton a sand dune acting as a protective sea surge bund containing upwards of a million cubic feet was mined and sold by the ULP government. I doubt they even owned the dune/bund because it had vegetation growing on it which means in law it was not part of the beach but in the ownership of the adjoining land owner. So according to their recently stated figures which they sold sand for for means they may well owe the real owner of the dune/bund up to EC$15 million dollars. The real damage is yet to be assessed when the next sea surge floods the land which the dune/bund was protecting. There are a number of houses on that land which could be destroyed or at the very least damaged and rendered uninhabitable. Removal of the dune/bund also blights the adjoining land and makes the houses built of little value and perhaps impossible to resell. Some of the land is close to or below sea level so once flooded by the sea will remain an inland salt water pond or lake.

The bund contained millions of artifacts and pottery items and pottery shards going back at least a thousand years. The government knew this but simply dug them along with the bund, loaded them on trucks and sold them as aggregate. Fortunately a very nice lady over the years had been collecting some of the historic items and has them on display in her home. I will only identify her by the name Mary. So thank you Mary as the collector and curator of our past. I know several others who also collected the islands history from the bund, thank you to all those people. I hope eventually all those collectors will deposit their finds in an appropriate museum; of course the time must be when an appropriate government values those items.

Peter Binose wrote about this subject as early as 2013
https://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/05/13/beach-dune-sand-mining-in-st-vincent-will-result-in-loss-of-land-flooding-opinion/

Most home owners have experienced the steel in their concrete house pillars and lintels becoming rusty and blowing off the cement exposing the rusty steel. The cause of this is most often triggered by the high salt content in beach sand which causes the steel reinforcing rods to rust and expand caused by the rust deposits as it eats the steel. That expansion causes the concrete to be pushed outwards and is described as blown when the concrete or plaster cover falls away exposing the steel reinforcing rods.

You can be sure that wherever they mine beach sand in the future it will cause un-recoverable damage to surrounding land, sea bed and the general environment as they have done at Brighton.

They have also been extracting and mining sand and ‘Rabacca Stuff’ from the river at Rabacca now for a number of years. Whilst the Government are the undisputed managers of all rivers in SVG they are not the owners of those river beds or mineral deposits contained therein or there under. Land owner either side of the river own the river bed to the middle of the river adjacent to their land. Such ownership is contained in the laws of SVG under the title of Riparian Ownership, the land owners are the riparian owners of the bed and all the minerals. Managing the river does not include a government right of mining and taking away and or selling the river bed or banks. So the land owners may have a multimillion dollar claim against the government and would be within their rights to seek an injunction to demand that the government or those they appoint or employ cease and desist in mining the river bed adjacent to their land. They may well be able to claim through the courts payment for the loss of their minerals extracted and perhaps even in some cases apply for compensation for the destabilization of their lands caused by what may be illicit mining of the river bed and banks.

The National Parks, Rivers and Beaches Authority was established by Act # 33/ 2002 to make further provision for the preservation, protection, management and development of the natural, physical, ecological resources and the historical and cultural heritage of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Has anyone noticed protection from them?

According to a Report of 2014: “The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (GoSVG) is collaborating with the World Bank (WB) to implement a Regional Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (RDVRP) which aims to measurably reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and the adverse impacts of climate change in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
“The XCD 165.4 million SVG RDVRP was declared effective by the WB on September 9, 2011,
and is being implemented over a seven (7) year period that ends on December 31, 2018. It is 100% financed by credits of USD 46.52 million from the International Development Agency, Strategic Climate Fund Pilot Program for Climate Resilience grants of USD 12 million, and a Strategic Climate Fund Loan of USD 3 million.´

Yet despite taking millions of US dollars from the World Bank and others the SVG Government are actively contributing to beach erosion by mining beaches and rivers instead of protecting them.
According to the World Bank [2017] sand mining in rivers or along beaches aggravates the problem of climate change and loss of land.

This is an extract of a UNESCO report from the late 90’s.

“According to Atkins (1993) 62% of the sand consumed was obtained from the Rabacca River. This sand is of variable quality, coarse grained and contains gravel sized pebbles. This type of sand is suitable only for concrete and pre-cast structures. Another 30% of the sand consumed was obtained from the Brighton/Diamond dune system and other beaches in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This beach sand is fine grained and is used in plastering and rendering work. 8% of the sand consumed was derived from crushed rocks.

“The removal of sand from the beaches is creating serious problems, including:
1. loss of scenic value;
2. destruction of dunes with their interesting and rare biological habitats;
3. destruction of turtle nesting areas;
4. loss of beach land which is a major recreational attraction;
5. blighting of mined beaches by illegal dumping;
6. flooding of coastal lowland area;
7. increased coastal erosion and destruction of coastal properties (land and buildings).

“If beach sand mining is allowed to continue at its present pace, and in such an unsustainable manner, the potential for the development of the tourism and fisheries sectors would be greatly reduced and the country would be unable to supply and ensure adequate income, employment and essential social services to all its citizens.
In addition, beach sand is contaminated with salt which leads to the spalling of concrete and corrosion of steel reinforcing bars, which reduces the structural integrity and lifespan of concrete structures.

“The [NDP] Government considered it necessary to cease beach sand mining and to develop alternative supplies. Within the country there is no viable source of sand and the Government decided to pursue the option of sand importation.

”Recognizing the commonality of the sand mining problems among OECS Member States and the advantages of bulk purchasing and bulk transportation of imported sand, the [NDP] Government spearheaded efforts at the OECS level for jointly exploring the possibilities of importing sand from Guyana for all the OECS States

“The [NDP] Government, after a series of in-depth studies and analyses, decided that it was going to facilitate a sand importation programme under the following arrangements:
1. Government will develop a sand landing and storage facility at Lowmans Bay for use by
private operators. This site will be leased to a private operator through a tendering process. The
lessee will operate at his commercial risk.
2. The Government will recoup the expenditure for the development of the jetty, ramps etc. at
the sand leasing facility through lease/rental payments from the lessee.
3. The lessee will not be given a monopoly to import sand and he will not be entitled to exclusive
rights to use the site. Other persons will be permitted to import sand and a specified rate of payment will be charged by the lessee for use of the facility.
4. The purchasers of sand have the right to determine the trucking arrangements for the sand.
The lessee may provide trucking services to purchasers only at the purchasers’ request.
5. No Government projects will use beach sand and the Government will purchase imported sand
through the sand importation facility.
6. Persons or firms receiving concessions from the Government for construction and
development projects will be required to use imported sand.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001087/108730eo.pdf

So here is evidence that the NDP government agreed there was a problem and decided to do something about, they even set up the project, when along comes the ULP government and dumps the project and accelerates the mining of beaches and rivers bringing with it future destruction.

Now they want to mine beach sand close to Georgetown, where already buildings are being claimed by the sea.

I am told that Senator Julian Francis is part owner of a hardware company who sell cement and steel. If that is true as I believe it is, perhaps Senator Francis should not be involved in making decisions regarding sand mining. It would appear there may be a conflict of interest.

Jolly Green

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