Although it doesn’t look so bad at low tide, high tides and storms are
washing away the sand on Pattaya Beach. Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome is
asking approval for stop gap measures to reduce the damage. (Full story
on page 6)
Chaiyot Poopapanapong
Pattaya wants to place 9,800 sq. meters of sand and
3,200 sandbags on North Pattaya Beach in a stop-gap move against ongoing
erosion as it awaits government approval on a more-permanent solution.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome
wants to place 9,800 sq. meters of sand and 3,200 sandbags on North
Pattaya Beach in a stop-gap move against ongoing erosion
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said Aug. 20 that the
Pattaya City Council has before it a 15.7 million baht budget request to
refill a 195-by-29-meter stretch of beachfront near the Dusit curve with
sand to offset the serious erosion the northernmost stretch of Pattaya
Beach has experienced. As the city awaits approval on a much larger,
more-expensive plan to rebuild the beach and alter currents, officials
will also drop 3,200 sandbags on the beach to prevent the new sand from
quickly being washed away.
A study from Chulalongkorn University found in
January that Pattaya Beach will disappear within five years if nothing
is done to curb erosion. To date, no action has been taken in response
to the researchers’ findings as national, provincial and city officials
quibble over the scope of a program that will cost in excess of 600
million baht.
Itthiphol said the city cannot wait the months, or years, for the
government to approve a permanent solution and so the stop-gap refill
and sandbagging project was necessary to prevent the north end of the
beach from disappearing in the interim.
