News
Glimmer of hope for Unawatuna’s lost beach
Ajith Weerasinghe
The reviled breakwater that has eroded the beautiful beaches of Unawatuna and driven tourists away from a formerly charismatic swimming, diving and coral reef snorkelling area is to be restructured and a new beach built.
The reviled breakwater
The Department of Coast Conservation has begun pumping sand onto the 1.5km crescent-shaped beach to bring back its former width. It plans to spend Rs. 870 million on laying a new beach and Rs. 37m on remodelling the breakwater.
The department’s construction of the nearly 1km-long breakwater in 2012, to counter the gouging of the beach by the 2004 tsunami, proved to be disastrous.
Wave patterns altered by the breakwater caused heavy erosion and the beach – and the hotels facing the beach – were seriously threatened. The invaluable coral reef also was at
Tourists have been injured by the rocks
risk of being covered by clay washed off the the breakwater.
As a safety measure against erosion, the Department of Coast Conservation could only pile rocks haphazardly along spots vulnerable to erosion. With this, the beach lost all the charm that had formerly endeared it to tourists.
A Danish national visiting the beach said some of his companions had been injured by the rocks, a comment indicating that the beach has not only lost its beauty but also become dangerous.
The number of tourists visiting the area has dropped significantly – by about 17 per cent since 2012.
The Manager of the Unawatuna Beach Hotel Ajith Weerasinghe says tourists are now cautious about visiting the area because travel agents are spreading the sad news about the current condition of the beach.