A year after Mexico spent millions to replace its hurricane-devastated beaches, Cancun is fighting against Mother Nature again. Erosion has shrunk its sandy playground to the point that waves at high tide lap against the decks of some of the newly renovated hotels.
On a crash course to bring tourists back after Hurricane Wilma, the Mexican government spent US$19 million to dredge the ocean floor and rebuild 12km of beach with 2.7 million cubic meters of sand.
When the dredging was completed last spring, the beaches were nearly double their pre-hurricane size, and tourists returned in droves to refurbished hotels.
PHOTO: AP
Just a year later, the beaches have shrunk again, to less than 20m at mid-tide in the tourist zone, and swimmers are forced to clamber down meter-high cliffs of sand to reach the water. Some visitors have jokingly carved smiling faces and hearts into the side of the steep ledges.
Most sections of beach remain about as wide as before the hurricane hit, although in places, open sand stretches less than 10m wide, and the sea is relentlessly munching away at what's left, said biologist Alfredo Arellano, Yucatan director for the federal government's Commission for Natural Protected Areas.
Tourism officials, developers and other private investors knew erosion would be a problem, and are preparing for a long-term response. They plan a public-private fund for future beach restorations, and an artificial reef off the coast that should help contain the sand. Meanwhile, sandbags line sections of the beaches and large, cloth-like tubes have been installed about 10m offshore.
But environmentalists say such costly efforts will be futile as long as hotels continue building at the water's edge and ripping out the vegetation whose roots once helped to hold the sand in place. They've been lobbying tourism officials and developers to install a 10m strip of native plants, with walking paths between hotels and the beach, even in already developed areas.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not