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Malaysia, Singapore's biggest source for sea sand, has banned the export of the commodity, according to officials in Kuala Lumpur, a move that traders said could complicate the island-state's ambitious expansion plans on reclaimed land.

Those plans include the development of the Tuas mega port, slated to be the world's biggest container terminal. Singapore has increased its land area by a quarter since independence in 1965, mostly by using sand to reclaim coastal areas.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir, who came to power in a shock election last year, imposed a ban on all sea sand exports on October 3, two senior government sources with direct knowledge of the decision told Reuters.

The government sources, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Mahathir was upset that Malaysia's land was being used to increase the size of its wealthier neighbour. He was also concerned corrupt Malaysian officials were benefiting from the secretive business.

Endie Shazlie Akbar, Mahathir's press secretary, confirmed that the government had put a stop to sand exports last year. However, he denied that it was aimed at curbing Singapore's expansion plans, saying it was a move to clamp down on illegal sand smuggling.

The ban was never made public because of the potential diplomatic fallout, the sources said. Singapore has not made any public comment on the ban.

Singapore and Malaysia were part of British-ruled Malaya and became distinct countries in 1965. They often have strained relations due to disputes over territory and shared resources, such as water.

Singapore's Ministry of National Development, which oversees sand imports, did not directly respond to questions about a ban by Malaysia but said it had multiple sources of sand and was cutting back its use of the commodity.

"Sand is imported on a commercial basis from various countries to ensure resilience in our sand supply," the ministry said in response to questions from Reuters.

"The government has also been encouraging the industry to reduce the reliance on sand."

Two traders importing sand to Singapore, who both asked not to be named, said the commodity is becoming scarcer and driving Singapore to source sand from as far as India, which would push up costs. Shipping is the biggest single cost in acquiring sand.

The traders added Singapore has been stockpiling sand in recent years which could provide a buffer against any immediate bottleneck in supplies.

EXPANDING BORDERS

The sand industry is opaque with no international price index, making it difficult to gauge the financial impact of a ban by Malaysia.

Sea sand is mostly used for land reclamation, while river sand is a core component in constructions materials like cement.

Singapore imported 59 million tonnes of sand from Malaysia in 2018, at a cost of $347 million, according to United Nations Comtrade data, which is based on information provided by individual countries' customs offices.

That accounted for 97% of Singapore's total sand imports in the year by volume, and 95% of Malaysia's global sand sales.

The data does not distinguish between types of sand.

Mahathir, who put in place a similar sea sand ban when he was prime minister in the 1990s, has also tightened regulations on river and estuary sand exports, the government sources added.

When Indonesia banned exports to Singapore in 2007, citing environmental concerns, it caused a "sand crisis" in the city-state that saw building activity almost come to a halt. Singapore has since bolstered its stockpiles. [https://reut.rs/2QRsLPH]

Unsustainable sand dredging disrupts sediment flows and fishing grounds, destroying livelihoods and polluting water sources in some of the poorest communities in Asia.

But Singapore criticized Indonesia for allegedly using the ban as leverage in negotiations over an extradition treaty and border delineation.

SINGAPORE NEEDS SAND

Singapore has already reclaimed its continental shelf, which means the depth of sea that is needed to be filled with sand for reclamation has significantly increased, said C.M. Wang, an engineering professor who has advised on Singapore projects.

Singapore now needs more sand or new methods of reclamation, like using polders and "Very Large Floating Structures".

Also, the pace of Singapore's expansion is accelerating.

In 2018, Singapore grew 2.7 square kilometers, the biggest annual expansion in a decade, official data shows.

One of the reclamation projects is the Tuas "mega port", which will open in phases until 2040.

The first of four construction phases at Tuas, due for completion in 2021 at a cost of around $1.8 billion, will use 88 million cubic metres of materials to reclaim an area equivalent to 383 soccer fields, authorities have said.

Singapore has said the Tuas port project, including the reclamation, is progressing on schedule.

"Besides sand, the MPA uses materials from a variety of sources to reclaim the land. These include dredged materials from navigational channels and fairways," said a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Singapore needs a lot of sand.

As a tiny island-nation acutely aware of its small size, it has long reclaimed land from the sea to expand its geographic area. Since it became an independent nation 54 years ago, its physical size has grown by almost a quarter, from 224 square miles (580 square kilometers) to just under 280 square miles last year, and it plans to grow further still to nearly 300 square miles by 2030.

All that land reclamation requires large amounts of sand, which Singapore has traditionally imported from her neighbors. As one architect put it, Singapore’s need for sand is “a kind of original debt: for the territorial state to survive, land must continually be introduced.”

Singapore needs a lot of sand.

As a tiny island-nation acutely aware of its small size, it has long reclaimed land from the sea to expand its geographic area. Since it became an independent nation 54 years ago, its physical size has grown by almost a quarter, from 224 square miles (580 square kilometers) to just under 280 square miles last year, and it plans to grow further still to nearly 300 square miles by 2030.

All that land reclamation requires large amounts of sand, which Singapore has traditionally imported from her neighbors. As one architect put it, Singapore’s need for sand is “a kind of original debt: for the territorial state to survive, land must continually be introduced.”

Malaysia’s ban on sea sand exports comes after Cambodia’s decision in 2017 to cease all sand exports to Singapore. Indonesia’s official reason for instituting a similar ban in 2007 was also environmental protection, but some believed it was politically motivated and used as leverage in negotiations over an extradition treaty. Still, illegal sand extraction has continued in spite of the ban, and the dredging threatens the very existence of some 80 Indonesian islands, according to the Guardian. Some 24 Indonesian islands have reportedly already disappeared as a result of sand exports, according to the UN report.

With Malaysia’s ban, Singapore will have to turn to other countries, like Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, even though they represent a fraction of what Malaysia was supplying.

Or it may have to look even further abroad. As rising global temperatures melt Greenland’s glaciers, more silt, sand, and other sediment are being deposited on its shores. A group of researchers believe that this presents a potentially lucrative opportunity for the Arctic nation: it could export excess sand to countries where demand is high. The cost of shipping sand around the world may pose barriers, however. For now, the researchers are studying the feasibility and the environmental effects of the idea.

Malaysia’s decision to ban sand exports in 2018 – even to neighbour Singapore – highlighted the fact that sand is globally becoming a scarce resource. “Researchers need to establish accounting processes for sand flows in, and sand extraction from, rivers – both legal and illegal. They need to bring the scale of the problem starkly to the attention of their peers, the public, and policymakers. Local sand budgets and measures to promote responsible use must then be developed,” scientists from the University of Colorado, US, argue, warning that much of sand trade is undocumented.

Relying on local authorities to monitor and control dredged sand is problematic as illegal activity is usually under the radar, and in some cases politicians have been profiting from sand mining themselves (see DPC June edition). The World Wide Fund for Nature, which released a report titled ‘The impacts of sand mining on ecosystem structure, process, and biodiversity in rivers’, recommends the public use smartphones to quantify and call out illegal mining. But individual efforts will not be as effective as a global sand database where dredged amounts can be vetted.

The Colorado researchers called on the UN Environment Programme and the World Trade Organisation to set up and oversee a global monitoring programme for sand. The researchers even suggested using gauge stations, ship sonar, and acoustic technologies to measure river-bed morphology and sediment fluxes, and airborne lidar. Better numerical models could predict and assess changes in sediment flows. The global dredging industry must be an active part of this programme and ensure accurate sand extraction data about activities by any dredgers or excavation equipment, especially in developing countries where the sand mining industry is less structured.

Many DPC readers agree that increased access to data is becoming more important as evidenced by their choice of “sensors for data collection” as the answers to last month’s reader question: What equipment will become more important in future?

If you or your company is already working on projects to ensure a sustainable sand trade or future reuse of materials, please do get in touch with us to share your knowledge with other readers.

Malaysia recently reported that it has banned the export of sea sand to other countries, citing environmental reasons. Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad imposed the ban last year in October but the ban was never made public. Endie Shazlie Akbar, Dr Mahathir’s press secretary confirmed the report, saying it was a move to clamp down on illegal sand smuggling.

Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar said that the sea sand export ban was to cut down on illegal sand mining and to protect Malaysia’s shoreline and continental shelf to ensure enough supply of the commodity to satisfy domestic demand. Dr Xavier added that Malaysia’s river sand can still be exported to other countries, though with the prime minister’s approval.

Most mined resource

The unprecedented urban growth of this century has seen cities expand at a pace and scale never seen before in human history. This rapid urbanisation drives the demand for sand, a key ingredient of concrete and asphalt as well as for land reclamation. Sand is now the most mined resource on earth which has been documented to cause widespread ecological devastation, as riverbanks, waterways and seabed are stripped of their foundations.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that 85 percent of all mining activity in the world is for sand or gravel. It is a global endeavour, yet it is little-noticed and many mining activities are unregulated, especially those occurring offshore. Sea sand is mostly used for land reclamation, while river sand is a core component in construction materials like cement.

Reclamation projects in Malaysia can be found in the states of Kedah, Penang, Perak, Melaka, Pahang, Kelantan and Johor, where massive reclamation work is underway for the Forest City development.

The recent report covered by The ASEAN Post on the Penang South Reclamation (PSR), which is a three-island reclamation project south of Penang island, will involve sea mining and dredging activities. An estimated 189 million cubic metres of sand and rock are set to be hauled in to make the artificial islands measuring 4,500 acres.

According to SRS Consortium’s project director Szeto Wai Loong, sand to be used for the PSR may come from two sources, Port Klang in Selangor and Perak, with the sand in Perak being dredged more than 20 nautical miles from the shore. The PSR is created as a land bank to fund the Penang state government's multi-billion-ringgit Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), where SRS Consortium is the project delivery partner.

There are 72 conditions which were imposed by the Department of Environment (DoE) in the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposed PSR project. Among the conditions are pollution prevention and mitigation measures involving control and monitoring of dredging activities and offshore sand mining and waste management.

The EIA report identified that a separate EIA is required for the activities of sand mining. However, according to the feedback provided by the Penang Forum – a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based in Penang – on the EIA, the impacts on the environment and fishing activities from sand-mining and dredging activities should not be evaluated separately. The PSR project could adversely impact the livelihood of 4,000 fishermen in Penang along with over 6,000 more fishermen in Perak, due to sand mining of the coastal seabed.

Threat to biodiversity

Massive amounts of sand are mined for land reclamation projects, which have been documented to severely damage environments and ecosystems. Sand mining is damaging because it also aggravates the problem of coastal erosion, which is particularly severe in areas that are already experiencing serious problems caused by sea-level rise. In 2007, Indonesia announced its export ban of sand to Singapore, citing environmental concerns after the active sand extraction caused islands to start disappearing.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)’s publication titled, ‘Impacts of coastal reclamation in Malaysia’ outlined other impacts of sea sand mining and dredging operation on the coastal ecosystem, which includes the loss of the marine benthic ecosystem such as coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mudflats, destruction of the buffer zone, disruption in the food chain, coastal water pollution and an increase in siltation and turbidity. Dredging also destroys seagrasses, creates plumes of sediment that can drift for miles which suffocates fish and blocks sunlight from the remaining underwater vegetation.

As expressed in the DoE’s condition for the PSR project, monitoring and controlling sand mining operations may promise better care for the environment, but can sand mining ever be sustainable?

“Sustainable sand mining is only possible if the quantities that are extracted are less than the quantities that are being replaced through the natural processes,” said Debi Goenka, a Conservation Action Trust executive trustee, adding, “since this varies from month to month and depends on the currents and tidal factors, this is a tricky process and most sand miners do not bother to try and maintain a balance.”

The fact remains that the current demand of urbanisation requires an unsustainable amount of sand. Rather than minimising the overall impact of sand mining on the environment, long-term environmental protection is still the best option.