How Sand Mining Is Devouring Bangladesh

Across Bangladesh, rivers that once nourished entire communities are now being gouged and gutted for sand. What began as a source of raw construction material has spiralled into an environmental and social disaster. From the banks of the Padma to the Brahmaputra’s shifting channels, sand mining – much of it illegal and politically protected – has become one of the country’s most destructive industries.

- Md. Mosharraf Hossain

Driven by the construction boom, thousands of dredgers work day and night, tearing into riverbeds and floodplains. The result is not just the deepening of rivers but the deepening of despair. Riverbanks are collapsing, homes are being swallowed, and ecosystems are vanishing. Despite clear laws under the Balu Mohal O Mati Bebosthapona Ain (Sand Fields and Soil Management Act) of 2010, amended in 2023, illegal sand extraction continues unchecked. Weak enforcement, political patronage, and profit-driven greed have made the law more of a formality than a safeguard.

In many cases, sand is extracted from unauthorized sites or in violation of lease terms for designated “Balumohal” (sand estates). Unscientific, aggressive methods like using “Bangla pump dredgers” worsen the ecological damage.

Sand mining is being practiced in Bangladesh, turning the river flow with very bad consequences. Excessive removal of sand may significantly distort the natural equilibrium of a stream channel. By removing sediment from the active channel bed, in-stream sand mines interrupt the continuity of sediment transport through the river system, disrupting the sediment mass balance in the river downstream and inducing channel adjustments (usually incision) extending considerable distances beyond the extraction site itself. The major effects of sand mining are listed below:

a) Extraction of bed material in excess of replenishment by transport from upstream causes the bed to lower (degrade) upstream and downstream of the site of removal.

b) Bed degradation can undermine bridge supports, pipelines, or other structures.

c) Degradation may change the morphology of the river bed, which constitutes one aspect of the aquatic habitat.

d) Degradation can deplete the entire depth of bed material, exposing other substrata, which could in turn affect the quality of aquatic habitat.