$4 Million USD to Save Dangriga’s Shrinking Beach

The sea has been eating away at Dangriga’s coastline for years, and residents have watched it happen in real time. Now a $4 million USD project is stepping in before any more time is lost.

The Coastal Project officially launched this week, targeting 27 coastal communities already feeling the effects of climate change. In Dangriga, the focus is on the northern shoreline.

For local resident Melvin Diego, the beach he once used as his personal training ground is disappearing, swallowed bit by bit by rising seas and years of coastal erosion.

“Dangriga is a place where there is a lot of breeze and the sea comes drastically hard. So it worries me that we are not going to have any beach ten years, twenty-five years from now for our children,” he said.

Climate finance manager at PACT, Eli Romero, said studies show the sand lost from Dangriga’s shoreline has not disappeared completely but is sitting offshore in front of the town. He explained that the project aims to move that sand back onto the beach as part of the restoration effort.

The project is being backed by the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, the Adaptation Fund and the Government of Belize.

Tonight on News 5, we’ll take you to Dangriga to see its shrinking shoreline and meet the man who has been cleaning and protecting it for years.