File photo taken on March 30, 2013 shows a boy picks up fish at Zanzibar, Tanzania. The Zanzibar Island is a famous tourist site featuring ancient architectures, green Indian Ocean seawater and white beaches. (Xinhua/Qi Lin)

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar is facing a serious shortage of sand for the construction industry, a senior official has said.

Hamad Rashid Mohamed, Minister of Agriculture Natural Resources Livestock and Fisheries, said that the Isles' government is considering instituting a ban on sand mining as the resource has been depleted in the Indian Ocean Island.

"Our study shows that in Unguja and Pemba islands, sand for construction has been exhausted due to the high demand of the construction materials. That's why we're thinking of banning sand mining and start importing the materials to meet the isles' growing demand," the minister said.

"We have remained with few pockets where sand is available. So, we need to protect those areas, because most of the time they are overwhelmed with farming activities and human settlements," he said.

He suggested the need for Zanzibar engineers and other players to start thinking about the alternatives to sand in the construction industry.

He said for the last 10 years Unguja mined 2,658,503 tonnes of sand, while in Pemba 200,959 tonnes of sand during the same period. During the period, 522 hectares of land were involved in sand mining, while 150 hectares of land in Pemba.

Currently, Zanzibar remains with only 14 hectares of land which are rich with sand, the area which is not enough to meet the Isles' sand demand.

File photo taken on June 19, 2009 shows boats sail at sunset off the coast of the Zanzibar Island, Tanzania. The Zanzibar Island is a famous tourist site featuring ancient architectures, green Indian Ocean seawater and white beaches. (Xinhua/Tu Jingsheng)

It is estimated that Unguja Island mines three hectares of sand per month, while half hectares of sand in Pemba per month.

Sand scarcity is expected to affect construction activities in the tourist island of Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous archipelago off the coast of East Africa.