Kuala Lumpur: Singapore has been accused of launching a "sand war" against its neighbours by paying smugglers to steal entire beaches.
The island city-state's size has increased by over 20 per cent since the sixties and demand for sand for lucrative land reclamation and development projects is higher than ever.
However, recent bans on exporting sand introduced in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam have cut off supplies and opened up a smuggling trade.
Thieves have begun making night-time raids on the beaches of Indonesia and Malaysia, carving out tonnes of coastline and leading to fears of an imminent environmental catastrophe.
Singapore's land developers are now pitted against environmental groups, who claim several of the 83 border islands off the north coast of Indonesia could disappear into the sea in the next decade unless the smugglers are stopped.
