The "thieves" then trade the sand to building firms to use in construction projects, fuelling the development of Dakar's coastline while eroding its beaches.

"This coastal strip we are trying to protect has almost completely disappeared, said Amadou Balde, head of the Senegal SOS Coastline association. On the shore below, three men were filling up their wheelbarrow with spadefulls of sand from a sandbank battered by the waves.

One of these three pre-dawn workers was Mamadou. As the handcart filled with a mound of damp sand, he owned up to making four or five such illicit thefts each day, "sometimes more".

The theft of beach sand from any of this West African country's 700-kilometre (435-mile) coastline is, at least in theory, banned.

But in reality there is a booming black market for the sand, which has grown to meet the burgeoning needs of the Senegalese construction industry, currently on the upswing .

With a growth rate averaging 12.45 percent from 2004 to 2007, the building industry makes up 4.6 percent of Senegal's Gross Domestic Product. That makes the sector one of the most dynamic parts of the the economy in this west African state -- which otherwise is plagued by high unemployment where about half the population lives below the poverty line, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

At the centre of the boom is the increasing spread of the Dakar urban area, where new housing is springing up like a rash. Piles of sand several metres high block every pavement.

"Everyone will tell you the opposite, but, with the exception of a few works of art, 100 percent of building sites use sea sand," confessed one entrepreneur, who did not want to give his name. "We don't have any choice, there isn't any other," he added.

-- 'Even if we catch them, they start again'--

There's just one problem: "it is contributing to the destruction of our coastline," according to Pape Goumba Lo, lecturer in applied geology at the University of Dakar.

There is only one place where sand-digging is officially permitted, a quarry 27 kilometres outside Dakar at Mbeubeuss, where sand-extraction has also intensified in recent years.

All day long huge yellow lorries, their skips full to the brim with sand, come and go from the site, heading for Dakar.

"Just imagine it. That's 400 lorries a day, each carrying 10 tonnes of sand, so around 7,000 square metres (8,372 square yards) of sea sand are disappearing each day," complained ecologist Haidar El Ali.

In order to step up the fight against illegal sand-extractors, the police have created a dedicated ecological brigade, which patrols the coastline along the Dakar suburbs several times a week. It was set up in May 2006.

In a four-wheel-drive vehicle in the middle of the night, warrant-officer Abdourhamane Diop and his team are on the lookout for sand thieves. Several handcarts and horses are visible along the seafront, but there's no one in sight.

"It's difficult to catch them in the act," bemoans Diop. "The word goes round that we are about, and they regroup after our patrol is over."

In the two years the squad has been operating, 84 people have been arrested, 99 handcarts have been seized, as well as 21 vehicles. On average, culprits receive a short jail sentence (one to two months) combined with a fine, which can vary from 100,000 CFA francs (150 euros, 235 dollars) to a million CFA francs (1,500 euros).

However, the deterrent effect of such punishment is limited, Diop said. "Even if we catch them, they start again because demand is so strong they can make lots of money, up to 80,000 CFA francs (120 euros) a month."

His feet deeply embedded in the cool sand of the Guediawaye beach, Balde is distraught at the future prospects.

"The whole world is complicit in this: from the thieves with the handcarts to those building the houses," he railed.

"When the sea is lapping at the doors of these new houses, what will they have to say for themselves?"

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