$6m needed for scientific study of Negril beach

Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer

THE NEGRIL Beach Rejuvenation Committee has submitted a proposal to the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), seeking $6 million to undertake a scientific study of the Negril beach which has been experiencing dramatic rates of erosion.

A stretch of beach in Western Jamaica.

According to president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Wayne Cummings, the committee is expecting that the project, if approved will take six months to be completed.

"Time is of the essence, there is no letting up, the beach is in as bad a shape as it has ever been, so we are hoping that the EFJ will be getting back to us very early in the year, to tell us whether or not the proposal has been approved because we now need to move ahead," Mr. Cummings told Hospitality Jamaica in an interview last Thursday.

"It still remains a crisis. All that has happened is that we've agreed on the way forward. No remedial work has been done," he said. "I think in the last month, with the rains abating, we have come back to a semblance of normalcy. Some areas are still without sand, some have netted a little more than others. As long as there is no further rains and significant wave action, we are holding strain. But we can no longer continue to hold strain; we need to see improvements," he added.

Mr. Cummings said the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has given significant input to the proposal, although they had not been attending the meetings.

"While they have a seat on the committee, they (NEPA) have not been attending the meetings, and they did excuse themselves, but they made a joint presentation with the Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society (NCRPS) and the Negril Area Environment Protection Trust (NEPT) at our first meeting that was chaired by the Minister (Dr Wykeham McNeill). So, the proposal that has been sent forward has had an input by NEPA, because they have been, over the last couple of years, doing measurements of the beach and they were able to infuse that (in the proposal)."

A one year study of the beach erosion problem in Negril by the Department of Geology and Geography of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in collaboration with the Coastal Zone Unit of the National Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) conducted between 1999 and 2000, concluded that the northern section of the Long Bay Beach has been experiencing shoreline erosion.

The study, which was funded by the Coastal Water Improvement Project (CWIP), revealed that some areas of the beach fluctuate between 35 and 40 metres. It recommended that feasibility studies be undertaken to develop other alternatives to protecting the shoreline, including the cultivation of seagrass meadows, (which help to manufacture sand) and the removal of plant life, which were reported to be smothering Negril's deep reefs.