The weather conditions of intense rains and strong waves that have occurred in recent days in the Mexican Caribbean have once again brought to light the serious problem faced by tourism service providers due to beach erosion.
Hotels, restaurants, beach clubs, residential developments and all kinds of buildings on the seashore face this problem, as recently demonstrated by the case of Playa Mamitas, located in an exclusive and popular area of Playa del Carmen, the heart of the Riviera Maya.
The force of nature is present and it is inevitable that coastal infrastructure and investments are at serious risk; the sea advances and takes away even the best-built foundations, regardless of whether they are well-known brands or great icons of the tourism industry.
The isolated efforts to not run out of sandbanks for tourists to enjoy during their stay have been reflected in all kinds of “solutions” that in the long run turn out to be not very convenient, such as the use of breakwaters, geotubes, sand fillings and other alternatives that are only temporary solutions and that in many cases have negative repercussions for the neighbors of these projects.
After the passage of the powerful hurricane “Wilma” in 2005, which, as will never be forgotten, stayed in the area for 3 days with strong category 5 winds that devastated the emblematic beaches with large stretches of white sand in the hotel zone of Cancun, the hoteliers strongly promoted the beach recovery program.
For many years, the need to recover the beaches was an issue that was on the table in many meetings between authorities and businessmen in the tourism sector, but it was the destructive passage of Hurricane Wilma that accelerated the negotiations and finally in 2006 the ambitious beach recovery program was launched, a project in which more than 27 million dollars were invested.
It is undeniable that throughout the Mexican Caribbean there is a real struggle to preserve the sand on the beaches, since it has become a highly coveted resource in the tourist areas of Quintana Roo. There are many voices that ask for a new comprehensive program to artificially recover the beaches with the resources of the Environmental Sanitation Law, but it is a request that has not been accepted so far.
Source: reportur
