Stringent laws providing for a minimum fine of Rs. 50,000 and a one year prison term for offenders are to be introduced to protect environment and contain illegal sand mining, a senior source of the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) said.

SMB Director Dr. M.D.O.K. Dissanayaka told the media yesterday that the existing law - The Mines and Minerals

Act of 1993 - does not have enough legal teeth to control the widespread illegal sand mining in the country.

“We expect to introduce amendments to the Act in the first quarter of this year,” Dr. Dissanayaka said.

Under the proposed law, the fine for the first time offence of illegal sand mining will be Rs. 500,000 and the fine for the second time offence will be Rs. one million together with a one year jail term.

The sentencing of convicts in courts has a legal impediment as the Act of 1993 does not contain provisions specifying the minimum fine. With the introduction of the minimum fine, the GSMB will be able to apprehend and prosecute successfully all illegal sand miners, he said.

The GSMB which entered the sand market in April, 2007 to counter the illegal sand mining has now been able to control the sand market with the supply of 1000 cubes of sand to the open market in Colombo and its suburbs.

“A cube of sand marketed by us costs only Rs. 3,500 which is half the price in the open market. With our entering to the sand market, the price stabilized,” Dr. Dissanayaka said.

The Government considers sand mining a vital requirement for the construction industry and infrastructure development but sand mining must not affect the environment. To tackle this issue the GSMB conducts islandwide surveys to identify sand deposits. Several sand deposits have already been identified and a huge sand deposit in Somawathi has already been tapped.

Samurdhi recipients have been given permission to earn an extra income from sand mining.  Pradeshiya Sabhas are paid Rs. 50 for every cube mined in their area of jurisdiction. The annual sand requirement is 1.2 million cubes and 600,000 cubes of sand come to the market are mined illegally, GSMB Chairman Dr. N.P.Wijeyananda said.

“GSMB does sand mining with a responsibility. We never tap the entire deposit but go only up to one metre deep. In addition we take measures to protect the river bund with a wire mesh and prevent damage to the shore,” he said.