Abstract

Author:
Akpan Samuel David, Ebong Mbuotidem Sampson, Abraham Comfort, William Justice Victor

Doi: 10.26480/egnes.01.2025.27.32

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Sand mining in Etinan South region of Akwa Ibom State in Southern Nigeria has become highly unregulated and unethically carried out in several communities. The unsustainable and unregulated nature of the sand mining activity has been observed to instigate negative environmental and socio-economic implications within eight sand mining communities in the study area. This paper categorically aims to evaluate the negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of sand mining within the study area in order to recommend a conservative approach for addressing these issues for sustainability. To achieve this aim, the study adopts the mixed-methods research methodology, utilising personal observations, field work and a structured survey questionnaire for data collection. For the analysis of the primary data, the pearson’s product moment correlation and simple percentages techniques were utilised. The findings of the study indicates that unregulated sand mining has led to environmental degradation by causing erosion and gully formation, landslides, loss of vegetation, and even water pollution in different sand mining sites. It has also shown that unregulated sand mining has led to socio-economic implications like loss of primary livelihoods and lack of good roads. To address these environmental and socio-economic issues, the study has proffered some ideal recommendations to guide the government and other stakeholders in regulating this practice.