Cuba razes buildings to fight beach erosion

Cuba razes buildings to fight beach erosion
Source: XINHUA | 2013-6-3 | ONLINE EDITION

HAVANA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is demolishing buildings constructed
over the natural dunes of its famed seaside resort of Varadero, in a bid
to fight beach erosion at its top tourist attraction.

So far, some 19 buildings in Varadero have been razed, and another 21
atop dunes along the resort's 22-kilometer coastline are slated to be
knocked down, 10 of them by the end of this year.

Random construction is one of the main causes of erosion at more than
400 beaches around the Caribbean island nation, which is losing sand
beaches at the rate of more than a meter a year, said Ivis Fernandez, an
official with Cuba's Tourism Ministry.

The authorities are also fighting beach erosion by trucking sand to beef
up certain beaches in Varadero, and some 3 million cubic meters of sand
has already been "replanted" in recent years.

"We're spreading the sand through a ... technique that in a short time
restores the natural state of the beaches," said Jose Luis Juanes, chief
of the Department of Coastal Procedures at the Oceanology Institute of
the Environment, Science and Technology Ministry.

Studies show the process of beach erosion at Varadero is irreversible,
forcing officials to regularly refill the beaches with more sand, Juanes
was quoted as saying by state-run daily Juventud Rebelde.

The authorities also were using suction tubes round the clock to dredge
undersea sand and pump it back to shore, he said, adding the method has
been used since the 1920s to expand or rebuild beaches at some of the
world's top resorts.

Like many of the world's most popular beaches, including Cancun in
Mexico, Varadero became the victim of its own success, with a runaway
building boom that put too much stress on its fragile coastal environment.

Prior to l990, Varadero had just three relatively well-known hotels -
the International, Caguama and Oasis - and a handful of converted
million-dollar villas that had been abandoned by their wealthy owners
after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

More hotels were built since the early 90s and today the number of hotel
rooms in Varadero has quadrupled to 18,742.

Varadero is the crown jewel of Cuba's tourism industry, the country's
second-largest source of foreign revenue, after the exports of technical
and medical services.

Cuba last year hosted some 2.85 million visitors and it hopes to receive
some 3 million this year.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=145254