Provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, the country's longest river, have coordinated efforts to deal with illegal sand mining, which has posed a threat to the safety of both navigation and embankments.
The Yangtze is rich in good-quality sand grit. Excessive quantities of the sand grit have been removed from the river in recent years. However, sand-mining barges have been blocking water traffic.
According to police in Anhui Province, five of the six navigation accidents in the river section of the province between October 7-18 were caused by sand barges.
A big barge equipped with simple dredging facilities can extract more than 100 tons of sand a day, which is sold at 60-70 yuan (US$7.22-8.43) per ton.
The Yangtze River Water Resources Committee authorized by the State Council to regulate sand-mining activities only allows sand mining for the consolidation of the river embankments. All other activities are illegal.
On November 5 Anhui Province banned all forms of sand mining for two years because of the violent resistance of sand-mining gangs against the police and damages to the riverbed.
Some sand-mining gangs carry weapons, police said.
In the Jiujiang section of the river running through Jiangxi Province, where the river meanders sharply, sand mining is said to be accelerating the erosion of the narrow river course.
(eastday.com 12/14/2000)
