Vietnam battles erosion of beaches – and of tourism

Vietnam’s government is counting on tourism to help boost the economy. Last year, tens of millions of international and domestic travelers contributed nearly 7 percent of Vietnam’s economic output. The government expects this figure to hit 10 percent by 2020. But what happened to Cua Dai beach and other tourist destinations casts a shadow over such ambitions.

Twenty minutes drive from the ancient town of Hoi An, a United Nations-designated World Heritage site, Cua Dai beach was once  a must-see for beach lovers. Locals still remember a white sandy beach stretching a hundred meters into the sea, covered with colorful clusters of wild flowers and coconut trees. But now, all that stands between the waves and buildings is a tiny beach, in some places no beach at all.

While coastal erosion is part of natural shoreline movement, experts say the damage to Cua Dai beach has been accelerated by rapid development and extreme weather events.

“In 2014, the beach seemed to disappear overnight,” recalls Mr. Nguyen, an official of Hoi An’s Protection Management Board who only gave his surname.  “It was during a typhoon. When people woke up in the morning, they found the beach was no longer there.” 

With the beach shrinking, tourism businesses along the coast are beginning to feel the pinch. Those hotels still in business have found it increasingly challenging to satisfy guests.  

“People come here for the beach,” says Cao Thi Phi Yen, a client relations manager at Golden Sands Resort and Spa, a luxury hotel in Cua Dai beach. “If they don’t see a nice beach, they will complain. We have had a lot of complaints,” she says.

To protect what remains of the beach, Golden Sands and other hotels have invested heavily in dyke construction. Walking along Cua Dai is like visiting a beach-restoration technology exhibition, with solutions ranging from concrete levees to stone seawalls to wave breakers resembling shipping containers, woven from synthetic fibers and packed with dredged sand.

Although these measures have kept the hotels safe, “this is a temporary solution,” says Nguyen Trung Viet, director of the Central Region College of Technology, Economics and Water Resources in Hoi An. Simply building a dyke in one place won’t stop erosion but will drive the problem elsewhere, he says.

“This local countermeasure may affect or harm other regions,”  such as An Bang, a nearby beach where tourism is now flourishing, he warns.

Officials in Hoi An are searching for a long-term solution, but that will take time and they lack the needed technical know-how to solve the problem, they complain. And even if their efforts do prevent future erosion, that might have come too late for some businesses.

Hung, the seafood restaurant owner in Cua Dai, has seen her business make bigger losses each year since the destructive 2014 typhoon. Once she employed 10 people; now she is down to four.

“I used to have many customers, but now I would be very happy if I could have one customer each day,” Hung says. “Today, I sold food worth only $10. This is still considered good. Other restaurants didn’t sell anything.”  

Article Appeared @http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Inhabit/2016/1130/Vietnam-battles-erosion-of-beaches-and-of-tourism

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