Singapore—whose leaders have characterised land reclamation as a defence against climate change, rising sea levels and water insecurity—is the world’s leading sand importer. The country is growing at a rate of more than 10 square miles a decade and, since more land means more inhabitants, more parks, more room for medical centres, schools and so on, its hunger for sand is only increasing. And as Singapore grows, neighbouring countries are quite literally shrinking. Indonesia, which provided much of that sand to Singapore, recently warned that dredging and sand mining had become so extensive
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