The World’s Hidden Crisis Beneath Our Feet: Why Sand Is Becoming the New Scarce Resource
By Matthew Eloyi
Sand is so ordinary that few people ever stop to think about it. It lines beaches, fills riverbanks, and sits unnoticed in construction sites across the world. Yet behind this everyday material lies a growing global crisis that the United Nations now warns could reshape the future of development as we know it.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has raised concern that humanity is extracting sand and gravel far faster than nature can replenish them, warning that sand is not the limitless resource many assume it to be.
The warning is contained in a new UNEP report titled “Sand and Sustainability: An Essential Resource for Nature and Development.” It paints a stark picture of a world increasingly dependent on a material formed over thousands of years, but consumed in a matter of seconds.
According to the report, surging global demand, driven by population growth, rapid urbanisation, economic expansion and infrastructure development, is pushing sand extraction beyond sustainable limits. The result, UNEP says, is mounting pressure on ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
The agency captures the paradox in simple terms: “we depend on ‘dead’ sand for infrastructure and ‘alive’ sand for natural services”.
It is a distinction that underscores how deeply sand is embedded in modern life. From roads and bridges to schools and housing estates, sand is the foundation of construction. Yet the same resource also plays a quiet but critical role in maintaining rivers, coastal systems, biodiversity and water balance.
The scale of consumption is staggering. UNEP notes that it took nature “hundreds of thousands of years” to form sand through geological erosion, but today, the world uses it at a rate of about 50 billion tonnes annually. Even more worrying, demand for sand used in buildings alone is projected to rise by up to 45 per cent by 2060.
“Sand is extracted for various infrastructure needs that underpin modern society and development,” UNEP said.
The report warns that if current trends continue, global demand could outstrip supply within decades, raising the unsettling possibility of shortages in a material most people never associate with scarcity.
Behind the figures are powerful demographic forces. Population growth and urbanisation are reshaping demand patterns across continents, particularly in rapidly developing regions.
“We have seen that particularly in Asia and Southeast Asia where the economy was booming,” said Pascal Peduzzi, a senior UNEP official.
“But we will see it now in Africa because the population is going to double from now to 2050,” he added, noting that an additional 1.27 billion people will require homes, schools and infrastructure.
The pressure is already visible in extraction patterns. UNEP reports that sand mining is increasingly taking place in fragile ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, coastal zones and protected marine areas, raising concerns about long-term environmental damage.
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Climate change is adding another layer to the problem. As sea levels rise, more sand is being used to build protective structures such as sea walls, further accelerating demand for an already strained resource.
What makes the issue more complex is how sand is perceived. The report argues that many governments still treat it as a cheap, abundant construction input rather than a strategic resource closely linked to biodiversity, climate resilience and water security.
Yet UNEP stresses that sand is not only about infrastructure; it is also about survival systems that sustain life.
In response, the agency is urging governments and industries to rethink how sand is sourced and used. It calls for stronger environmental oversight, greater transparency in extraction permits, and a shift away from lowest-cost sourcing models that often ignore long-term ecological costs.
Some countries, according to the report, are beginning to explore alternatives. One such innovation is “ore-sand”, a by-product of mineral processing that could help reduce pressure on rivers and coastal ecosystems traditionally targeted for extraction.
Other alternatives are also emerging, including compressed straw, which UNEP says can serve as a durable and energy-efficient building material – a reminder that innovation may hold part of the answer to reducing dependence on natural sand.
At its core, the report is a warning about invisibility and how a resource so common can become critically endangered without most of the world noticing.
Sand, UNEP suggests, may be under our feet, but its future is anything but stable.
