This is Africa you're talking about. As much as that sounds like noble and a good idea, convincing local communities and especially businesses here is not going to happen unfortunately.
It's a consequence of being in the third world and having a "catch up at all costs" mentality. Besides, conservation and environmentalism just isn't as in-grained in most African cultures as it is in the west.
Even if you convinced the local government of putting such a law on the books, the odds of them being able to track and enforce such a law is next to impossible. Maybe in more developed countries like South Africa or Namibia, but not in most of the others.
Well why not have whoever is concerned about this sand thing fund an operation to go and bring sahara sand and dump it all along the riverbed? And the operation would be funded by local taxes on the companies extracting the resources. Solved.
Unless you're saying these governments have no negotiating power about their own land and resources? In which case this is just straight-up PLUNDER.
It's a consequence of being in the third world and having a "catch up at all costs" mentality. Besides, conservation and environmentalism just isn't as in-grained in most African cultures as it is in the west.
Even if you convinced the local government of putting such a law on the books, the odds of them being able to track and enforce such a law is next to impossible. Maybe in more developed countries like South Africa or Namibia, but not in most of the others.