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Not that you could swim here or even walk the stretch of beach between the West Point cottage at the northern end of Mullins Beach (proper) and the abandoned Kings Beach Hotel in Road View for the last two weeks, but as reported in the Nation newspaper today, major remedial work has been initiated by one property owner in the area to try to prevent losing more of their beachfront to the ocean. It is great that they have access to the huge resources necessary for this undertaking but it's a shame that it is forced upon them through no fault of their own. However, where does that leave people of modest means in the area? Who is helping them cope with this environmental disaster also thrust upon them?
Let us be clear that no one is denying climate change and/or ocean rise here, or even the cyclical bouts of sand erosion and restoration, but without a doubt beach erosion in the Mullins Bay area has been exascerbated by the groynes placed next door to King Beach Hotel to create a larger beach for the luxury condos under construction behind it. This has been one of the main themes of this blog from the time those groynes went in three years ago as we watched the systematic destruction of the beach and private property right before our very eyes on a daily basis.
We are not even saying that the groynes were placed with any malicious intent or sinister motive of chasing people of limited means off the beachfront to provide more space for even more condos. What we are saying is that mistakes were made in allowing the groynes to be built and that now is the time to correct those mistakes before it is eternally too late. Several property owners in the area have had to resort to a variety of schemes to save and repair their belongings, to the point where the once picture perfect beach is now an ugly hodgepodge of rock piles and flotsam and jetsam, gabion baskets and rock revements, exactly not the sort of things you want tourists to see - not to mention breaking limbs falling over. What is needed is a comprehensive solution to the prolems in the area free of political and/or other favours and considerations, and we need that solution urgently.
Save Mullins Bay
Road View, St. Peter
Barbados
246-244-1885
savemullinsbay@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/savemullinsbay
Sure looks like you have the worst case senario there. You are absolutely right that without a conherant and unified approach by all those who back the beach the results will be worse impacts for those who don't/can't invest in "protection works" and aggravation of the erosion in the areas nearest the works themselves. Coastal communities around the world are having to grasp this concept and there are examples where this has been done successfully. Good luck! regards Harley
ReplyDeleteHow do you know the groynes at St. Peter's Bay have anything to do with the state of Mullins Bay? Before those groynes were installed, the impact area would have been modelled to measure changes to the immediate and surrounding areas. Beaches erode and accrete naturally all the time. I agree that there is a need to model the entire West Coast and to plan sea defences, particularly in areas with high concentrations of hotels and other tourist accommodation. Visitors will spend most of their time on the beach, so well maintained beaches are important part of our tourism product. Decades of sewage seeping into the water have killed coral reefs and sea grass growth so important for preserving the beaches.
ReplyDeleteIt is an open secret that no modeling or exhaustive studies were done of the area before the groynes were installed. As a matter of fact, CZMU initially turned down the project before political pressure was applied.
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