00:01On a rocky Cape Verde beach, Maria and Vanilla fill their buckets with black sand the moment that waves recede,
00:09transporting it on their heads to stockpile, where it will be sold illegally.
00:14The women, known as sand thieves, have performed this grueling task almost daily for more than 15 years in order
00:20to survive in one of the island nation's poorest region.
00:27Sometimes we are physically exhausted, but we come anyway, and sometimes we have back pain from the weight we carry.
00:38We are in pain, but the next day we come back. If you don't come back, you won't have any
00:45money.
00:47Far from the idyllic white or black sand beaches, Ribeira da Baca attracts no tourists, much like the majority of
00:55Santiago Island's beach areas.
00:57For decades, these sites have served as artisanal open pit mines for harvesting sand sold at rock-bottom prices, leaving
01:06behind a desolate landscape of stones and craters.
01:13Seawater starts to seep into the land with the sand collection, and since Cape Verde is a country where it
01:20does not rain enough during the year,
01:22and if the rain does not fall to carry out the process of washing the salt out of the soil,
01:26the result is poor quality water.
01:30This is why sand collection has disastrous consequences for agriculture and for the lives of farmers.
01:38Sand mining is illegal in Cape Verde under laws passed between 1997 and 2017, punishable by fines or imprisonment.
01:46Yet the practice persists, with authorities sometimes turning a blind eye when it's a matter of survival.
01:53I think it is unfair to not receive government help.
01:57Yes, it is unfair because the government already knows that we collect sand to not die of hunger,
02:02to be able to send our children to school.
02:05Buyers pay around $140 for a load of sea sand oven gathered over weeks,
02:10which is still cheaper than what it is legally extracted from quarries.
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