PRESS RELEASE Sandy Beach after the Christmas Trough On 24 December 2013, a severe weather trough caused the Vieux Fort River to swell and, around 7pm, break its banks in the La Tourney area. The river water flooded the runway of Hewanorra International Airport and rushed into Vieux Fort town. Low-lying areas in the Bacadere, the Mang and Bruceville flooded with 4 ft of muddy water. From the airport runway, the river water quickly flooded the low-lying plain to the east of town, in the area of the Recreation Park. Just a few weeks before the trough, a backhoe was used to clear an area (approximately 50 meters wide) along the road, apparently in order to open up visual access to the football field. The backhoe cut down some mature trees and bush and levelled what used to be a somewhat elevated sandy area with low dunes. Playing field seen from road - Buffer zone (foreground) levelled before storm
Inspection of the area on the morning after the Christmas Trough revealed that the flood waters had come across the airport runway and the football field, rushed through the newly opened-up area and crossed the concrete road. Once on the sea-side of the concrete road, the flood waters combined with outflow from a partially buried culvert that had no direct access to the sea, undermined the road's sandy foundation for 50 to 100 meters along its length, causing the WASCO mains pipe to break, and eventually causing 3 out of 4 lanes of the road itself to collapse. The water then forced its way to the sea, in the process finding and quickly eating out several vehicular tracks that ran from the road to the sea. The force of the water created deep, wide gashes in the beach, leaving only a few isolated islets where some trees and other vegetation still managed to cling together.
What was once a vehicular track The Christmas Trough took full advantage of these channels, creating the huge gashes we see today. Where, before, sand dunes and vegetation formed a barrier between land and sea - today, the beach laps right on the edge of the (damaged) road.
To make matters worse, a day or two after the Christmas Trough, a crew used a backhoe and a tipper truck to cut down two large sand dunes just north of the broken road, using the sand to fill in an area where the mains water pipe had broken. In doing so, they extended the weak and vulnerable part of Sandy Beach northwards by an extra 150 meters or so, bringing it rather close to the 'Sandy Beach' restaurant building (Cass Elias' property).
With large parts of Vieux Fort town situated below sea level, it is of paramount importance that we recognise the urgent need to rebuild and protect the only defense Vieux Fort has against flooding from river or sea during heavy weather. This defense consists of natural sand dunes, held together by creeping vines, trees, grass and shrubs. The practices in 2013 of cutting down sand dunes with backhoes, cutting down vines and bush to open up recreational space and allowing vehicular tracks to cut inroads from the road down to the sea, is proving suicidal. Unless we repair the damage done to the beach during the Christmas Trough and come up with a plan for the sustainable use and conservation of Sandy Beach, we are putting people's lives at risk in the upcoming hurricane season. Heavy seas will inevitably cut through the now totally degraded beach causing flash-floods in the low lying areas of Vieux Fort.
Increased danger of flooding from the new weak spot? It is also suicidal in economic terms: how many times will we need to repair the road and water mains in future? Are we willing to put our airport runway at risk? Finally, it is suicidal in purely environmental terms, considering that Sandy Beach is home to the largest concentration of sea grape trees on the island, and the southern end of Sandy Beach boasts two or three species of plants that exist nowhere else in the world. In short, coastal reconstruction and subsequent intelligent management of this natural defense mechanism and resource at Sandy Beach is an absolute must; for the physical safety of our people in Bruceville and Vieux Fort town; for the protection of our costly infrastructure, and for the preservation of our unique natural assets. The Saint Lucia National Trust along with some of its members from its Southern Chapter raised these concerns with representatives of the National Conservation Authority, the Vieux Fore Town Council, the Vieux Fort Constituency Council, the Ministry of Infrastructure and other stakeholders. In those discussions it was agreed that the sand dunes which were removed to backfill the area where the WASCO pipe was damaged had to be replaced to protect the road and help prevent future disasters of this nature. To this end we are collaborating with the Vieux Fort Town Council and the Constituency Committee to use sand to be removed from routine river maintenance to replace the inland dunes. The Reef Restaurant and Bar has come to our assistance with a contribution of $5,000 to help fund this activity, which will result in the replacement of one of the sand dunes removed to back fill the place where the WASCO pipe line was repaired. The Saint Lucia National Trust is thankful to Ms. Cecile Wiltshire and Jolien Harmsen of the Reef for their kind donation to this project. In thanking them we lament the need for private citizens to have to invest
in corrective measures to restore the unnecessary removal of the sand dunes which provide natural protection to the roadway and help regulate flooding. The cheque presentation was held on Wednesday February 12 th, 2014 at the site where the sand dunes were removed. In terms of the longer term solutions, the meetings we convened agreed to conduct grain size analyses to determine options to restore the near shore beach resources and to explore a detailed study of the area with the view to making recommendations for flood control measures to mitigate future floods. These undertakings are beyond the resources of the Trust and we are soliciting the assistance of relevant government agencies to support these measures. Bishnu Tulsie Director Footnote: The material used in this Press Release was taken from a report on the impact of the 2013 Christmas Trough by two of our members, Cecile Wiltshire and Jolien Harmsen.