Coastal Erosion and Seawalls in India

The west coast of India has tremendous coastal resources but is also an erosional hotspot. Significant coastal population and spotted infrastructure development meet severe environmental conditions like monsoons season, sea level rise, beach retreat, port construction or mangrove destruction in a complicated battle. 

In India, coastal erosion is becoming the subject of more and more focus and interest. While the solution in the past has been primarily seawalls, the local population is beginning to see that they often cause more problems than they solve. We wanted to highlight a short article recently featured in the Times of India by Professor Jayappa of Mangalore University. 

 

From Times of India: Sea walls are no solution to erosion: "Beaches belong to everyone. They are the playgrounds of waves of the sea. 'We should make efforts to preserve our beaches. Hence we should think of going for green walls instead of sea wall. Sand mining at sea shores should be completely banned,' said Prof Jayappa, department of marine geology, Mangalore University, on Monday."

"Removing sand and shells are also dangerous, from the angle of preservation of sea beaches. Jayappa observed our East coast is endowed with larger quantity of sediments than the Western Coast. 'We are spending over Rs 300 million only for dredging. Sea wall making is a money spinning business.'"

This is an argument that ASR uses a lot in educating people on the purpose and benefits of Kovalam Multi-Purpose Reef. In fact, one of ASR's founders is an Indian citizen and lives in Kerala. Our business witnesses the effects of severe coastal erosion on coastal populations everyday. When you're targeting your business towards sustainable coastal management solutions, we figure it makes sense to attack where the problems are worse.

Kerala Tourism - Promoting sustainable growth and development

Kerala Tourism and the Harbor and Engineering department have been extremely pleased by the changes to Lighthouse beach following the installation of Kovalam Multi-Purpose Reef. Here is what they had to say and a movie depicting the changes that have occurred. ASR is please to be promoting not only sustainable coastal protection but also responsible tourism in Southern India...

"The Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala in association with the Department of Harbour Engineering, implemented India's first offshore multi-purpose reef at Kovalam to protect the Lighthouse beach. The multi-purpose project, while improving the ecology would also enhance tourism growth through the introduction of surfing.

Kovalam Multi-Purpose Reef is showing encouraging results and leading a new trend of valuable coastal protection methods. The multi-purpose reef was designed to protect the beach from erosion, and it was made from materials that would improve marine habitat and fishing for the locals.

On Feb 27, 2010 India's first Multi-Purpose Reef at the Lighthouse Beach in Kovalam was completed. The reef now protects the eroding stretch of the Lighthouse beach from further devastation during the monsoon rainy season by reducing the wave energy. Fish life blossoms as the reef provides a firm substrate on the seabed for colonization by marine species.

Kovalam Multi-Purpose Reef is an innovate form of coastal protection that provides value previously not associated with coastal protection structures like seawalls, groins and jetties. The long-term objective of Kovalam Multi-Purpose Reef is to restore the beach by providing 'soft' or 'sustainable' prevention mechanism for coastal erosion.

Providing marine habitat strengthens local fish population, promoting security to the livelihood of local fishermen and providing added benefits to the marine environment. The reef is offshore and submerged and the multi-purpose reef does not restrict access to the coast.

For the sake of beach protection and fishing benefits, a multi-purpose reef can be designed to greatly improve the surfing conditions, which was another strong goal of the project. The reef generates adequate wave for surfing enthusiasts, bringing more travelers and revenue to the area.

The project was focused on Kovalam, but the technology could be used in other locations in India. The multi-purpose reefs can be used as a substitute for the devastating rock seawalls and other hard structures along India's shoreline, which are destroying our tourism and preventing local villagers, access to the sea for fishing."

Check out the Kerala Tourism website

 

  

Letter to Chris Jensen

A few weeks ago, we received this letter addressed to Chris Jensen, one of the managing directors at ASR ltd. It's always exciting to make new friends while traveling and we're happy they got back in touch with ASR ltd. We got a kick out of this letter and we hope you do to.