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 Editorials | Environmental | April 2007 
Cancún Coastline Protection To Begin
 El Universal
| | People wait for the arrival of the ferry that will take them to Isla Mujeres in the port of Puerto Juarez, near Cancun, Mexico, Tuesday, April 10, 2007. Rising global temperatures could change the face of tourism in Latin America due to more severe storms and hurricanes and rising sea levels. (AP/Israel Leal) |
The Quintana Roo governor has announced plans to keep the beaches from disappearing.
Cancún - The governor of Quintana Roo said a project to stop the gradual disappearance of the beaches at Cancún will get underway in May.
The head of the state´s Infrastructure and Transportation Secretariat (Sintra), Gabriel Mendicuti, said Friday that the project is a fundamental step to prevent Cancún beaches from disappearing over the long term.
"Of course they will disappear over the long term if we do nothing," the official said, describing the project as "preventive maintenance."
"We have to understand that we have changed the coastline, and it´s not going to behave the same way as 40 years ago," he said.
In October 2005, Hurricane Wilma blew away most of the sand from Cancún´s beaches, obliging the government to budget US$20 million for their restoration, a project that was finished in April 2006.
The beaches regained some of their splendor, but it has become obvious that if control measures aren´t put in place, the sand will disappear again.
Since April last year, north winds have carried away almost half of the beach that was previously restored.
The project being started in May by the Erosion Control company will initially cost between 12 and 14 million pesos (US$1 million to US$1.2 million), Mendicuti said.
The plan consists of installing 1,200 meters (1,300 yards) of special tubing 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter by 2.5 meters (8 feet) high at four different places along the coast.
The tubes are meant to act as barriers that keep the wind from eroding the coastline.
Nonetheless, Mendicuti said that, in the medium term, more sand will have to be unloaded on the coast, because over the past 30 years, some 8 million cubic meters (10.5 million cubic yards) of sand have been lost.
Much of this is due to poor environmental planning and damage caused by two violent hurricanes. |
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