Experts Warn, Development is Driving Placencia’s Beach Erosion

Placencia’s disappearing beaches are no accident, they’re the price of progress. That was the sobering message environmental experts delivered to residents during a community meeting aimed at tackling the peninsula’s growing erosion crisis. According to Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai, the Department of the Environment set up a special task force to dig into what’s driving the problem and, more importantly, how to fix it before it’s too late. The studies point squarely at development. Experts revealed that nearly three‑quarters of Placencia’s coastline, seventy-two percent, is already built up, and the outlook is even more troubling. If development continues at its current pace, the entire coastline could be developed by 2035. With that growth comes increased pressure on the shoreline, worsening erosion and putting both homes and beaches at risk.

 

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer

“The DOE established a taskforce to guide the implementation of a series of studies that would have been done along the Placencia Peninsula to identify the causes, considering that there’s a lot of structures within the area. Last night was an opportunity for the expert to share with the community what the findings of the studies were and also to propose to them some possible, practical implementable solutions and then the idea was to hear back from the community of those solutions. The professors and the experts informed that the biggest challenge, or the biggest cause of erosion along the Placencia Peninsula is in relation to all the man-made structures that apparently exist along the beach. They mentioned that currently, based on the trajectory of the development of the peninsula, seventy-two percent of the coastline is under some form of development and the projection, and the forecast is that by 2035, you will have a hundred percent development along the coastline. So, the expectation is that, again, it will get worse, in terms of development, and the impact that development has on the coastline. And so, they also said that of the seventy-two percent of development along the Placencia Peninsula, seventy percent has some form of erosion abatement structure along the coastline.”

 

A Nearby Solution for Placencia’s Shrinking Shoreline

 

After sounding the alarm on how unchecked development is eating away at Placencia’s coastline, environmental experts are now pointing to a solution that’s closer, and cheaper, than many might expect. New scientific findings confirm that much of the sand lost to erosion hasn’t disappeared at sea but remains just offshore, opening the door for a practical beach‑nourishment approach that could help stabilize the peninsula’s shrinking shoreline.

 

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer

“So, some of these things are local knowledge, we know them, but scientifically, they are then confirmed that the sand that has eroded from the Placencia coastline is, really and truly, right near shore. So, it’s within a fifteen kilometer distance and the professor was very keen and suggesting that the best approach currently, and the cheapest approach is to keep the current structures, he’s proposing to keep the current structures along the coastline and then recover the sand that is near-coast and just re-establish or nourish the beach. So, he believes that that is a very practical, environmentally safe and economically feasible option and that was what was presented to the community last night.”

 

Experts say a simple fix may help save Placencia’s beaches, by pulling sand that’s still sitting just offshore and using it to rebuild the shoreline without costly new structures.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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