
Aug 5, 2026
✦ScienceAlert
The World's Rivers Are Running Out of Sand
Industrial sand mining is extracting river sediment faster than nature can replace it. A review of 411 studies since 1974 showed that global demand for construction materials is unsustainable. In Vietnam, hydrologist Dung Duc Tran said, "Between 2015 and 2022, approximately 366 million cubic meters of sand was extracted there."