City Has Plan To Replenish Pattaya Beach Sand

November 6, 2012

The city may spend up to 420 million THB project to refill sand on Pattaya beach. About 35 meters of beach would be created along the shoreline. Sandbags would also be laid along the beach to stem the erosion. Officials are still seeking a long-range solution to Pattaya’s vanishing beach.

PATTAYA – November 5, 2012 [PDN]; at 9:00 p.m., At the Sand Beach hotel, numerous government and education officials and others gathered to discuss ways to combat the accelerating erosion of Pattaya Beach. The problem of erosion of the seashore in Thailand is now severely critical, said Ms. Suthilak Rawiwan, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Sea Resources and Seashore.

A study was of the Chonburi province seashore, which extends for 171 km. The study found that that erosion chipped away along more than 25 km of shoreline, and the lost beachfront land totaled more than 117 rais.

In the last 10 years, erosion has been occurring at a severely critical level of 0.8 km per year. Since199, the rate of erosion along the seashore is 1.8 km per year, which was twice the previous rate, showing an acceleration of erosion.

Thailand has a shoreline area of about for 3,100 km, and has had to face the problem of erosion of approximately 830 km or 26% of its shoreline, Ms. Suthilak said.

For the project of putting more sand in Pattaya beach, the proposed method is to bring 350,000 cubic meters to fill in the beach for 35 meters, said Professor Dr. Thanawat Jaruphongsakul, the head of water research project, Chulalongkorn university.

In addition, the project calls for laying sandbags in a blockade about 15 meters from the sea shore. With this method, the budget is approximately 420 million THB.

The Pattaya Port Harbor department had hired the water research institution at Chulalongkorn University to conduct the study and the design and planning to restore sand at Pattaya beach. The university has finished designing the final plans, said Mr. Anuwat Laothongkham, the head of traffic and transportation in Pattaya.

During the budget allocation of Port Harbor department to fill in the sand in Pattaya beach, Pattaya city will submit a budget request from the government at the meeting of ministers at Pattaya.

Pattaya city officials will present the results of the study from the water research institute of Chulalongkorn university in making its budget request.

Pattaya is the first city in Thailand to experiment with putting more sand in the beach to solve the problem of the erosion of the sea shore, and uses a method of sand replenishment popular in many other countries in the world with shoreline communities.

When the coastline erodes, it creates many problems for people who live in the area, as well as the ecosystem of sea resources and seashore. As a result, government officials are rushing to seek solutions and study the many technical aspects of the issue.

So the meeting’s agenda is to brainstorm to finding the solution to solve the problems that were found by the researchers in many fields of study. Therefore the city has to consolidate efforts with other entities to adopt the same strategy in the same direction.

Hosting the meeting were officials from the Department of Sea Resources and Seashore, the Office of Policy and Natural Resource Planning and Environment. They had set the stage to brainstorm and exchange the knowledge and experience of those in attendance to manage the erosion of the seashore.

The meeting was a collaborative effort between the local administrative organization, educational institutions, the consulting companies of central relevant government units, the representative of regional government sector, and the representatives of the local area and community, as well as people residing in the risky areas of erosion of the seashore.

The meeting’s goal was to publicize information of knowledge regarding the trend of conducting to manage the erosion of the seashores in other areas. Pattaya city had arranged the meeting between the related officers, led by Mr. Anuwat Laothongkham.