VietNamNet Bridge – As the busiest seaport in Cochin since the Champa age, Cua Dai beach in Quang Nam province, central Vietnam, is becoming severely eroded.

Cua Dai beach, which is 5km from Hoi An's old quarter, is a favorite location for tourists visiting the UNESCO-recognized ancient city. Erosion has come closer to the main section of the 1.5km road connecting the beach with Hoi An, threatening dozens of resorts. Rising sea levels have already washed a 20-hectare area of Cua Dai beach away. The serious destruction occurring along the 7-kilometre coastline is posing direct threats to nearby tourism facilities and residential areas and intruding into cultivated land.

In the past three months, more than 3km coast connecting beaches and many resorts have been eroded. The beach that made the name of ancient Hoi An port is now a ravaged scene.

Not only the beach but also hotels, resorts, and restaurants along the coast have been threatened. Thousands of sandbags and bamboo stakes have been used as breakwater, but they are not enough to prevent large waves hitting the shore all day and night.

Along with the beaches Bai Dai (Phu Quoc), Nha Trang, and My Khe (Da Nang), Cua Dai Beach is a famous tourist site included in the list of 20 most beautiful beaches in the world but the big waves are preventing the local government and people’s attempt to save the coastline.

Many coastal restaurants have built steel wires around bamboo poles to keep sandbags, but after a few days, they are destroyed by waves.

Each resort has its own way to resist the intrusion of sea water, but even the embankment with many large iron rods buried deep under the sea are also pushed by waves.

On December 24, the Quang Nam Construction Department in collaboration with the University of Water Resources held a workshop to seek suggestions to save Cua Dai beach. According to scientists, the cause of erosion is mainly due to changes in the balance of sediment. The sandy source for the coast from the Vu Gia - Thu Bon rivers is in shortage because these rivers have too many hydropower works.

The researchers also proposed to prohibit sand exploitation in the Thu Bon River Basin as well as along the coast of Quang Nam and plant coastal protection forest.

These are long-term solutions. In the short run, to save Cua Dai, Quang Nam will drive 1,000 Larsen iron stakes of 9 m long to protect the area from waves and will build a dike with 3,000 sand sacks imported from Holland. These segments hit by strong waves will have embankments with two rows of reinforced concrete pillars of 4 m high.

Le Ha