Erosion of new beach worries fishermen
... but JSIF says it is not unusual
William Hill sat a few metres away from his boat along the Kingston waterfront on Port Royal Street, preparing bait for his next fishing trip. He is one of the 36 fishermen who dock their boats along the newly created fishing beach.
Fishermen have, for decades, berthed their vessels along the shoreline on the waterfront, but an 80-metre fishing beach was created for their use as part of the Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project. The new fishing beach is located a few metres away from the Rae Town Fishing Village. However, Hill said that a significant portion of the beach has been eroded by the tides. “Dem seh we shoulda get about 70 kilometres a beach but it break down back to 40. Dem seh dem a guh fix a beach and give we, but me nuh know weh dem a deal with, but maybe dem affi go put back some more sand and gravel. Dem put we right here so but as you can see it a go weh, so we affi watch and see,” Hill said.
“From dem come and shift we up, my boat start get some injury enuh. Me start have problem with leaking, because the little beach we did have did a likkle smoother, but now we affi a come up pon the rougher part and it start cut down the boat bottom cause a bere stone. If dem nuh fix it up, we soon affi go anchor the boat dem,” he added.
NATURAL PROCESS
However, Omar Sweeney, managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, which is implementing the $950-million project, said it is a natural process for man-made fishing beaches to be eroded.
“We had prepared the fishing beach and it is sand; it is going to erode to a natural state. Some of the sand is going to erode to a natural state and so what has happened with the fishermen is that they saw us putting sand there in one way and they see some of it washed away now and they have a concern. But the way it was put there throughout the construction, it really would not stay there. Naturally, just like any beach you would go to, it will form its own natural gradient,” Sweeney told THE STAR.
He said the process was explained to the fishermen and maintained that when the waterfront project is completed in October, the fishing beach would take a natural form.
An eye-catching project, the Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project is being undertaken to enhance the resilience of the Port Royal Street corridor to the adverse effects of natural disasters and climate risks.
In addition to an improvement in the roadway that stretches from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade building to the Rae Town Fishing Village, a seawall has been constructed and work is underway to construct a boardwalk to improve the site’s aesthetics and promote recreational activity along the shoreline.