how to harvest sand

HOW TO HARVEST SAND

My first article in lodpost.com was about R. Nzoia (https://lodpost.com/river-nzoia-2452). In the article, I mentioned that one of the activities that take place in the river is the harvesting of sand. It occurs in the middle of the river, preferably at the deep zone. How is it done?

The sand is a product of erosion upstream. This gets deposited on the riverbed as it reaches the lazy stage where its speed is reduced.

Sand harvesting requires the following implements: a good boat (the bigger the better); a bucket (with a rope) for scooping sand, a spade and two people. The first guy is the diver and scooper of the sand while the other keeps the boat steady, watches the back of the diver and pulls the scooped sand into the boat.

The diver thus dives into the river all the way down to the riverbed with the bucket, scoops the sand and swims to the water surface into the boat. His companion pulls the sand-filled bucket out of the water, empties its content into the boat and then gives the diver that now-empty bucket for another round of diving. This cycle goes on until the boat is filled with sand.

The now full boat is steered to the banks for emptying and final loading onto tippers on stand-by, as the boatmen go back for another round of sand harvesting. On agood day, one can make more than kshs. 5000 (US$ 50)

Sand harvesting is for professionals. Do not try this at home.