The Government has drawn attention towards utilising sea sand in place of river sand for the construction industry as a shortage prevails for river sand due to the ban on river sand mining, Construction and Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne said last week. Minister Senaratne said the Government and private sector constructors must be urged to utilise sea sand in place of river sand for construction work. He said moves are underway to purify sea sand and supply it to the construction industry. Due to the saltiness of sea sand, the durability of structures constructed using sea sand is only 20 years, he said. The Minister said two major issues faced by the construction industry are shortage of sand and continuously increasing cement prices. Addressing the media at Hotel Renuka, Minister Senaratne said only 40 per cent out of the entire local cement demand is produced in Sri Lanka. The Government has to import 60 per cent of its cement requirement. Senaratne said talks are being held with Indian based Birla Company to reopen the Kankesanthurai Cement Factory as a joint venture. He said if the Kankesanthurai cement factory was opened, a sustainable solution could be found for cement shortage and cement could be distributed to the construction industry at a fair price. Minister Senaratne said to cater to the country's sand demand, the recently opened Deukosha state metal quarry is also supplying artificial sand extracted from rock stone. Rock sand is more strong than river sand. CEO/Secretary General Chamber of Construction Industries (CCI) Dakshitha Thalgodapitiya, Deputy General Manager Offshore Banking (Bank of Ceylon) W.A. Nalani and Assistant General Manager D.M. Gunasekara were also present.