Beach Degradation & Sand Mining
The Smiling Coast of Africa will remain worthy of its name.
The Gambia's Atlantic coastline is one of the nation's most valuable natural, economic, and environmental assets. It contributes substantially to the tourism sector that employs tens of thousands of Gambians. It protects coastal communities and infrastructure from storm surge and wave action. It provides habitat for marine species that support the fishing industry. It is, in the truest sense, irreplaceable. And it is being destroyed. Irresponsible sand mining and unchecked coastal development have accelerated erosion at a rate that threatens both the tourism asset and the physical safety of coastal settlements. Unregulated sand extraction for the construction industry removes the very material that holds beaches in place, leaving behind eroded shorelines, collapsed dunes, and communities increasingly exposed to flooding and storm damage. The Gambia's beaches are retreating at measurable rates while the enforcement response has amounted to periodic crackdowns rather than systematic regulatory management. Tourism investors look at an eroding coastline and see risk, not opportunity. The National Builders Party will end this cycle.
A Gambia where the coastline is managed as the national asset it is, with sand mining replaced by sustainable inland alternatives and coastal erosion reversed through active restoration. Where every beach that draws a tourist, protects a coastal community, and sustains a fishing ground is monitored, enforced, and physically restored where damage has already occurred. Where the construction industry that currently depends on beach sand has been transitioned to alternative materials through regulation, incentives, and the technical support to make that transition practical. Where the communities that live along the coast are protected, informed, and active participants in the stewardship of the shoreline they depend on. Our beaches are not just a source of beauty and pride. They are essential to tourism, fisheries, and community well-being. Under the National Builders Party, they will be protected, restored, and preserved for the generations that follow.
The NBP will develop a National Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan in the first year of government, providing the legal and technical framework for every decision affecting the Gambian coastline for the next generation.
The Plan will define the zones of the coastline and their permitted uses, the setback distances from the high-water mark within which construction is prohibited or restricted, the protection standards for beaches, dunes, and mangroves, and the monitoring and enforcement arrangements for coastal management. A Coastal Construction Setback Line will be formally defined and legally enforced, prohibiting new construction within a defined minimum distance from the high-water mark. All coastal development applications will be required to demonstrate that the proposed development will not accelerate erosion or reduce coastal resilience. The plan will integrate coastal protection with tourism development, fisheries management, and community land rights, ensuring that development and conservation work together rather than against each other.
The NBP will establish the National Coastal Protection Task Force as a dedicated multi-agency enforcement body with the mandate and operational capacity to prevent illegal sand mining and other harmful coastal activities around the clock.
The Task Force will bring together officers from the National Environment Agency, the Department of Lands, the Gambia Police Force, the Navy, and local government councils in a coordinated enforcement operation, ending the fragmented and inconsistent approach that has allowed illegal sand mining to continue despite nominal prohibitions. A 24-hour coastal watch patrol will operate along all sections of coastline identified as high-risk for illegal extraction, with the authority to detain violators, confiscate equipment and vehicles, and halt illegal operations immediately. A public reporting hotline and mobile application will enable any citizen to report illegal sand mining or coastal dumping, with a guaranteed enforcement response within 24 hours of a verified report. The Task Force will also work with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment to design and implement coastal restoration projects in areas where erosion has already occurred.
The NBP will enact comprehensive coastal protection legislation with penalties severe enough to make illegal sand mining economically irrational, moving from nominal prohibitions that are routinely ignored to a legal framework with real deterrent force.
A total ban on unregulated beach and coastal sand mining will be enacted with substantial financial penalties for first offences and criminal prosecution for repeat or large-scale violations. Any approved sand extraction operation will require a licence issued by the NEA following a full environmental impact assessment, with conditions covering extraction volumes, seasonal restrictions, approved methods, and restoration obligations. Buffer zones around coastal settlements, hotels, beach tourism facilities, and marine wildlife habitats will be legally designated and enforced. Offenders will face fines, licence suspensions, equipment confiscation, and where the environmental damage is significant, criminal charges carrying custodial sentences. Companies that knowingly use illegally mined coastal sand in construction will also face penalties, creating accountability across the supply chain rather than only at the point of extraction.
The NBP will reduce the construction industry's dependence on beach sand by promoting alternative building materials, regulating inland sand sources, and providing the technical support that makes the transition practical for contractors, engineers, and builders.
Research and development of alternative building materials including compressed earth blocks, fly ash bricks, and recycled concrete aggregate will be supported through the NARI research programme and partnerships with international construction materials institutes. Inland sand mining at environmentally approved sites far from ecologically sensitive coastal and riparian areas will be regulated, licensed, and monitored as the primary legal alternative to beach extraction. Incentives for contractors who use sustainable materials and follow government-approved construction guidelines will be built into public procurement requirements, ensuring that government construction contracts actively drive the transition. Training and awareness programmes for contractors, engineers, and construction workers will be delivered through the NTEA network, covering both the new material options and the legal requirements that now govern sand sourcing.
The NBP will deploy a permanent coastal erosion monitoring network along the full length of the Gambian coastline, providing the continuous scientific data that evidence-based coastal management requires.
Permanent erosion monitoring stations at defined intervals along the coastline will track beach width, dune volume, and shoreline position, providing the data needed to identify where erosion is accelerating and where intervention is most urgent. Satellite imagery analysis will complement ground-level monitoring to provide comprehensive, regular assessments of coastal change along the entire shoreline. The monitoring data will be published in the National Environment Agency's annual report, giving the public, tourism operators, coastal communities, and government agencies full visibility of how the coastline is changing and what management interventions are working. A Coastal Erosion Emergency Fund will provide rapid-response financing for immediate protection measures when monitoring data shows critical acceleration of erosion at specific locations.
The NBP will prioritise mangrove restoration as the most cost-effective natural coastal defence available, targeting the mangrove systems that provide the strongest protection against erosion and storm surge while also supporting fisheries and biodiversity.
Mangroves are the most effective natural coastal protection system available. Their root systems stabilise shorelines, reduce wave energy, trap sediment, and provide nursery habitat for commercially important fish species. A National Mangrove Restoration Programme will map all degraded mangrove areas along the coast and tidal river systems, prioritise restoration sites by their coastal protection value and ecological condition, and implement community-led replanting programmes with technical support from the NEA and international conservation partners. Community coastal stewardship groups will be trained and supported to monitor restored mangrove areas and prevent re-clearance. The economic value of mangroves to fishing communities will be quantified and communicated, building the local constituency for their protection that enforcement alone cannot create.
The NBP will build a grassroots coastal stewardship movement by engaging residents, youth groups, women's organisations, and fishing communities as active partners in protecting the coastline they depend on.
Environmental education programmes in schools and communities near the coast will connect students directly to the health of the shoreline through nature field trips, coastal clean-up activities, and beach monitoring projects. Community sensitisation campaigns through radio, television, and town hall meetings will communicate the economic consequences of beach erosion in terms that coastal communities understand directly: fewer tourists, fewer fish, flooding where once there was beach. Youth and women's groups adjacent to high-risk coastal areas will be trained as coastal watch volunteers, extending the reach of the formal enforcement system through community-based reporting. Tourism operators, hotel associations, and fishing communities will be formally engaged as stakeholders in the Coastal Zone Management Plan, ensuring that the people with the most to lose from coastal erosion have a meaningful voice in the decisions that determine its management.
The National Builders Party will invest in active coastal restoration at the beaches and shorelines where erosion has already caused significant damage, because protecting what remains is necessary but not sufficient where the damage is already done.
Beach nourishment projects, using sand sourced from approved inland deposits and delivered by methods that minimise disturbance to adjacent seabed habitats, will be implemented at the highest-priority eroded beach sections identified through the monitoring programme. Dune stabilisation using native coastal plant species will be implemented at locations where dune systems have been destroyed, restoring the natural barrier between the sea and coastal settlements. Engineered coastal protection structures including groynes and revetments will be evaluated and deployed where natural and mangrove-based solutions are insufficient to protect critical coastal assets. All restoration projects will be developed with the involvement of the coastal communities they protect and the tourism operators whose businesses depend on the beaches they restore. The Smiling Coast of Africa must remain worthy of its name.
For Coastal Communities
The beach in front of your community is a physical barrier between your home and the sea. When it erodes, you lose that protection. Restored mangroves, enforced buffer zones, and active beach restoration mean that the physical safety of your community is treated as the government's responsibility. A reporting hotline and community watch networks mean you have a real channel to protect the coastline you live beside, not just the right to watch it disappear.
For Tourism and Business
A tourist does not fly to a country to look at an eroded shoreline. The beaches that attract visitors are a renewable national asset only if they are protected from the extraction and development that destroys them. Enforced setback lines, illegal mining prosecuted rather than tolerated, and active restoration of degraded beach sections are not restrictions on tourism development. They are the conditions that make tourism investment in The Gambia a rational long-term bet rather than a race against coastal collapse.
For Every Family
Construction that uses legally sourced inland sand rather than beach sand will cost marginally more per unit. It will not cost communities their coastline. The transition to alternative building materials, supported by training, incentives, and government procurement requirements, will happen systematically rather than overnight. What will happen overnight is the enforcement of the ban on beach sand mining. The companies and individuals who have been extracting a public asset for private profit at public cost will no longer be able to do so without facing the full consequences the law provides.
The New National Standard for the Gambian coastline is a shoreline that is wider, not narrower, at the end of each government term than it was at the beginning. Beaches that are monitored, protected, and where necessary actively restored. Mangroves that are growing back, not being cleared. A construction industry that has transitioned to approved inland sand sources and alternative materials. A coastal watch that operates around the clock. A public that knows exactly how to report illegal mining and trusts that the report will be acted on within 24 hours. No new construction within the defined setback line without a demonstrated case that it will not accelerate erosion. The Smiling Coast of Africa will earn that name through active stewardship, not passive hope. The National Builders Party will build that stewardship into law, into institutions, and into the daily habits of every Gambian community that lives beside the sea.
Our beaches are not just a source of beauty and pride. They are essential to tourism, fisheries, and the safety of the communities that live beside them. Under the National Builders Party, these vital assets will be protected, restored, and preserved for the generations that come after us. The Smiling Coast of Africa will remain worthy of its name.
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