Sat, Aug 01, 2026 page3

• Cabinet approves Tainan coast conservation plan

  ISSUE: Structures such as ports and breakwaters are blocking sand drifts, resulting in sand accumulating in one area, while others see increasingly severe erosion

  • By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
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  The Executive Yuan has approved a Category One coastal retention project in response to coastal erosion, the Tainan Water Resources Bureau said during a city council meeting yesterday.

  A stretch of coastline from Bajhang Creek (八掌溪) to Erjen Creek (二仁) is experiencing severe erosion, the bureau said.

  Under natural conditions, coastlines, through littoral or longshore drift, ocean currents, monsoons and typhoons, reaches a state of dynamic equilibrium, it said.

  

  A stretch of Tainan’s coastline is pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government

  However, artificial structures — as a result of developing the economy and growing the fishery industry — such as fishing ports, trade ports and breakwaters, were blocking the littoral and longshore sand drift that would compensate for erosion, the bureau said.

  The municipality’s coastline is experiencing varying levels of erosion, with the breakwaters near Beimen Fishing Port (北門漁港), Jiangjun Fishing Port (將軍漁港), and the southwestern waterway blocking sand drift, resulting in insufficient sand in the Shuangchun (雙春) and Beimen area, the bureau said.

  The sandbars in Cigu’s (七股) lagoon has also diminished due to tidal erosion, the bureau added.

  The expansion of the fishing and commercial ports in Anping (安平) has also blocked sand drift to the south’s Golden Coast, resulting in increasingly severe erosion, it said.

  The Water Resources Agency is moving 25,000m3 of sand to Beimen while continuing to replant windbreaks damaged by coastal erosion, the bureau said, adding that the agency has completed a 1,025m jetty in the Cigu salt fields for better protection.

  The Tainan City Government’s short-term plan to address the erosion of the Cigu lagoon sandbar is to adopt environmentally friendly methods, such as geotubes and dredging sand from elsewhere, to reclaim the ridge of sand, the bureau said.

  Medium to long-term plans would include spending NT$1.09 billion (US$33.75 million) to build submerged breakwaters, it said.

  The bureau has moved 150,000m3 of sand to the Gold Coast area to help reclaim the beach, while the central government is providing NT$320 million to construct offshore breakwaters, the bureau said.

  The bureau said it is also employing workers to manually move sand from northern parts to the south.

  Work to conserve and retain Tainan’s beaches would take a long time, and the only way the project would succeed is if the central and local governments work together, it added.
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