With our correspondent in Dakar, Théa Ollivier

Senegal has 700 kilometers of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. But since 2009, the mining code has prohibited any extraction of marine sand, recalls Roseline Mbaye Carlosse, director general of Mines.

"We face coastal erosion, the advance of sea level and the exploitation of marine sand can have an accelerating effect on the consequences of climate change, such as habitat loss, destruction of infrastructure, modification of ecosystems around the coastline."

The environmental gendarmerie is responsible for combating fraudulent sand exploitation on the coastline. For its part, the Ministry of Mines conducts regular studies to find new quarries and alternatives to marine sand.

"We have been able to direct operators toward dune sands found on the continent. This sand we are talking about, there is a lot of pressure linked to development, to the construction of infrastructure, which increases year after year. It is therefore important to find other sites, but always outside marine ecosystems, which can meet this need for sand supply for Senegal's development."

More than sixty quarries are authorized within the country, which produced 2,500,000 cubic meters of sand in 2021.