2.3 - Beach Mining

Because of its easy availability, beach sand has commonly been used for construction in the Caribbean islands. The major growth of tourism in the last decades has led to the interesting conflict that the very beach sands that attract the tourists are use d to build their accommodations. Alternatives are use of such other local materials as tuffa, which is the very sensible solution reached in the French West Indies, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Import of sands, e.g., from Guyana, is expensive but preferab le (Cambers, 1992). Although several scientists (Deane, 1973; Oostdam, 1992) have pointed out the adverse effects of beach mining, the most effective and sustained efforts have been conducted by Chambers, who has prepared an impressive series of reports under the auspices of the University of Puerto Rico's Sea Grant Program (COSALC 1) even though her efforts were originally restricted to the East Caribbean islands (Chambers, 1992, 1994, 1995).

Figure 5 and Table 2 demonstrate the growing public awareness of the beach mining problem and its overall rating of 2.8 ranked second only to that of sewage and solid waste. Particularly strong concerns were registered by more than 60% of the respondents from Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent and Turks & Caicos islands.

To see some photographs of the effects of beach sand mining, press:

TOBAGO, Goodwood Beach, Nov.16, 1980
TOBAGO, Goldsborough Bay, July 24, 1981
TOBAGO, Little Rockley Bay, Nov.15, 1980

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