Sand Wars

Written and directed by Denis Delestrac and released by Green Planet Films, Sand Wars (2013), travels around the globe to examine the vital issue of the exploitation of sand. While many of us think of beach erosion when we consider the vital nature of sand, Delestrac makes clear that the need for silica drives the world's construction industries and has led to the planet's reserves of sand being dangerously depleted.

Sand is harvested by ships as large as aircraft carriers, using enormous dredging techniques that wipe out all ocean floor life, while at the same time being illegally harvested by small groups of men who use shovels and burros to make away with this commodity. In a brief but potent 52 minutes, Delestrac
travels across the globe to investigate the influence of sand harvesting on ecosystems as varied as Dubai, Morocco, Indonesia, Maldives, North Carolina, Florida and Brittany,
By interviewing experts in a number of fields and by examining the effects of sand harvesting on ordinary citizens, we quickly learn about the importance of one of the most devoured natural resources on the globe.

Silica is the main component for the production of glass and cement and once chemically broken down into other products, is a key element in the production of food, cosmetics and hundreds of other items. As such it is a valued commodity that will be mined and harvested by anyone who sees a profit in it around the world.

The relentless sand harvesting has not only threatened the coast lines of the world's population, but as Delastrac reveals, continues even in the Maldives, whose island chain is daily threatened by ever increasing ocean levels. Climate change is not only the Maldives biggest enemy. Their own citizens are still harvesting ocean bottom sand and threatening their islands very existence.

Moroccan citizens rage against the destruction of their beach environments, but the sand smuggling is done by young men and boys, laboriously struggling with shovels to move sand onto the backs of burros to be carried away for sale to some unknown source.

Dubai is given special time, because of the contradictions that their construction work faces. While
Dubai builds ever larger buildings, and creates new islands out of sand, none of it can come from the deserts that surround it. Ironically, desert sand does not contain the right structure to be used in construction, so the mega projects that fuel Dubai's new city empire must be made with concrete that uses sand from other world locations.

Everywhere Delestrac travels is another introduction into the dangers of sand depletion. Whole coast lines in the USA are under continual threat of erosion and the attempts to replace declining beach fronts with sand dredged miles off shore just doubles down on the eco-destruction taking place. The ocean floor gets denuded of life and the next storm sucks the new beachfront away.

Sand may appear to be free, but it is not, it may appear to be in endless supply, but that is a mirage. The faster sand is harvested, exploited and disappears, the sooner the consequences of such activities become apparent. The overuse of sand is one more problem to be added to the list of environmental concerns that we all face and the film's laser like focus on this overlooked issue is vital and commendable.