Posted on July 25, 2022
A section of Cua Dai Beach in December 2016 and July 2022.
Voted one of the most beautiful beaches in Asia by Tripadvisor in 2013, Cua Dai Beach in Quang Nam Province, home to the ancient town of Hoi An, has suffered severe erosion for years, losing between 10 and 20 meters of land each year since 2014.To save the beach, Quang Nam Province deployed 1,000 iron stakes nine meters in length to mitigate the impact of waves and built a dyke of 3,000 sandbags, but to no avail.Since June 2020, the province has implemented a new project to build an underwater dyke offshore aside from filling up eroded sections along the beach with pumped sand.
A section of Cua Dai Beach in December 2016 and July 2022.
Hai Ly (C), a tourist from Hanoi, said she visited Cua Dai two years ago and is astonished by how the beach has been saved from severe erosion.
“I really hope the authorities would continue restoring this beautiful beach to its original state.”
A resort providing huts and benches for tourists.
A beach section that stretches 300 meters long and 100 meters wide along Au Co Street of Cua Dai Ward after restoration.
To revive the beach, Quang Nam had deployed two different projects at a total investment of nearly VND350 billion ($15 million).
Costing VND40 billion, the first project was implemented in June 2020 to build 220 meters of embankment that lies half a meter underwater and around 250 meters onshore.
The embankment spans 4.5 meters high and 1.2 meters wide.
The internal structure of the dyke comprises cobblestones, with each weighing 700-1,200 kilos; the outside is paved with concrete blocks, each weighing 5 tons.
Due to a lack of funding, the project was put on hold in September 2020.
In July 2021, the province resumed lengthening the embankment by more than 1,500 meters at a cost of VND300 billion, filling it with 600,000 cubic meters of sand.
The project is expected to complete in September this year.
The technique of building an underwater dyke has been applied in many countries but the project in Cua Dai Beach is the first in Vietnam. The dyke will weaken the force of the waves hitting the shore, preventing it from washing sand away.
Sea sand is dredged from the sea and placed onto the beach.
In total, 500,000 cubic meters of sand have been dredged and placed on the beach.
Nguyen Ngoc Tan, deputy head of the investment project management board for construction of agricultural and rural development projects in Quang Nam, said last month, the provincial administration had approved VND210 billion to build an additional underwater dyke of 550 meters.
Experts have blamed falling river sediment, sand mining and strong waves for beach erosion.
