Sand snatchers shrink beaches

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Ahh, the Caribbean. Sun, surf. But where’s the sand?
It’s disappearing at alarming rates as thieves feed a local construction boom.

Caribbean round grains, favoured in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night.
On some islands not much bigger than Manhattan, towns and ecologically-sensitive areas are now exposed to tidal surges and rough seas.
In Puerto Rico, thieves once mined the dunes in the northern coastal town of Isabela, said Ernesto Diaz of the Department of Natural Resources.
But now they’re stealing the beaches of the tiny island of Vieques.
Among the hardest hit is Grenada, where officials are building a $1.2 million (U.S.) seawall to protect the 340 sq. km island. Large-scale sand thefts have exposed north-coast towns to rough seas, said Joseph Gilbert, the minister of works and environment.
One of the region’s largest sand thefts targeted Jamaica, where nearly 100 truckloads were swiped from private property in the northwest—exposing protected mangroves and a limestone forest to wind and waves.
Roughly 20,000 cubic metres of sand were taken in late July—enough to fill roughly 10 Olympic-sized pools, said Jamaica Mines Commissioner Clinton Thompson, who suspects government officials were involved.
“I was surprised at the amount,” he said. “This one could not have been stolen without persons knowing about it.”
Illegal sand mining in the Caribbean began in the 1970s, when people with shovels stole small amounts for construction because most homes were built with wood.
The thefts increased as builders switched to concrete homes and only have gotten bigger with the rise in construction of resorts and hotels—built, ironically, for tourists drawn by the Caribbean’s immaculate beaches.
An estimated 80 new hotels and resorts are expected to open in the Caribbean through 2012, according to Smith Travel Research.
Some islands offer local quarries or designate certain beaches for mining, but large-scale nighttime thefts persist despite police patrols.
Front-loaders and other heavy equipment are now used instead of shovels to steal sand, which sells for nearly $200 (U.S.) for a cubic yard.