To meet massive development needs:

Demand for sand to increase by seven million cubes per year

Disna Mudalige

'The demand for sand will increase by seven million cubes per year within the next two years with massive development taking place in the country, Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Daily News.

He said that the present demand for sand is eight million cubes per year. He said that according to the calculations made by the Ministry this will be increased to 15 million cubes per year within the next few years.

However, the maximum capacity that can be extracted from our rivers amounts only to 12 million cubes per year. "Huge environmental problems may rise if sand was over extracted from rivers. Therefore, we can expect a shortage of three million sand cubes per year in the near future," he observed.

The minister noted that a special program is being planned by the Ministry to obtain sea sand to fulfill the increasing demand. "This will be done while taking preventive measures for coastal erosion.

This should be done using modern technologies and the minerals in sand should be properly washed away before using them for construction purposes," he noted.

The minister said that adequate measures will be taken to avoid a shortage of sand in the local market.