Big waves and a rise in sea level have washed away an area of 4,000m² of the Cua Dai Beach which is about 5km away from the centre of Hoi An City since last week, after a series of tropical low pressures and heavy downpours hit the central coastal region.

A rock dyke built to protect property from erosion at the Victoria Hoi An beach resort (Photo: VNA)

Hoi An CIty People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Dung said that although positive measures to save the beach from erosion have been taken, the beautiful beach has gradually been disappearing.

He said a 1,100m Geotube sandbag dyke which is positioned under the water 60m off the beach, could not prevent big waves from crashing onto the beach and washing the sand away.

Sea water also overcame a 400m section of underwater sandbags to erode 10m of the beach, threatening beachfront resorts and hotels.

“It’s the worst since 2009 when we started positive measures to protect the beach from disappearing. We spent over 80 billion VND (3.6 million USD) to build sea dykes or temporary embankments with bamboo and sandbags, as well as the Geotube sandbag, but it’s still in vain,” Chairman Dung added.

“The city has spent another 100 billion VND (4.4 million USD) to build sandbag dykes,” he said.

According to the city’s latest report, a 20-ha area of the Cua Dai Beach was washed away between 2009 and 2014.

He said his city has urged the national government to allocate emergency funds and to take effective measures to protect the beach.

Mr Dung said 70,000m³ of sand and sludge would be dredged from the Cua Dai estuary to fill up the beach and shore up the protective underwater sandbag dyke system following an urgent decision adopted last week at a meeting with the local Department of Irrigation.

Last year, the city and the Agency for Development of France (AFD) agreed to conduct a survey of beach nourishment as a sustainable and effective protection of the Cua Dai Beach with an investment of 136,000 EUR (327,000 USD), but the money will only be given in 2018 once the survey begins.

An expert from Hoi An City blamed the erosion on the construction of resorts on the beach and the lack of proper environmental assessments before dredging the estuary.

The city has planned an investment of 7.5 billion VND (357,000 USD) to replant 140ha of Nipa palm (a species of palm native to the coastlines) along the Thu Bon River to reduce sand erosion in the Cua Dai beach, but the ecological solution has not yet been approved.

French-Vietnamese architect Bui Kien Quoc who lives in Hoi An, said erosion could hit the An Bang Beach, about 2km away from Cua Dai, in the next few years.

(Source: VNA/ Da Nang Today)