[rastagirl777]

Mary Viera will be posting on FB soon as to what is ACTUALLY going on with this thing.

Right now its a "go" with construction starting in March.  It is my hope that Mary and her team will fight to prevent that "go" from "going" in the meantime.

[Van]

Capt D...maybe I was in a hurry posting. But the fact remains..Of course it has to be fought. These guys are jokers. Hopefully no Breakwater happens. We all know half of these politicians just want their name out there good or bad-attention hogs.  They won't go to jail or loose their job because they were self serving and maybe they gave the contract to their brother in law. We all know this. 

They (politicians) are spin doctors. You I'm sure saw the paper today and the other day as per usual course of the day.

And again the end of the day they do things they want, legal or illegal..and always seem to get away with it.  If they back off the Breakwater its because they have their hand in something else.

[captaind on Zion Hill]

(01-13-2015, 06:36 PM)Van Wrote:  Capt D...

I wasn't asking about your post. There was a good friend who's board name was Van.

Unless you're posting from the here after it's not you.

Welcome to the board

[Van]

Nope....it's stll me

[CardBoardBox]

The news article (?) in response to the letter seems filled with standard BS and double talk, but maybe it is me. Conversely, the letter does not seem totally factual either, at least as quoted.

I also went to the University site to see if the report was available but they did not appear to offer such paid research, and stopped short of emailing anyone.

I did find a page worth reading elsewhere:

https://willieraynor.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/disaster-management-expert-supports-breakwaters-option-for-negril-4/comment-page-1/

[JonTom]

A new article on Negril Breakwaters project:

"Impasse Over Negril Breakwaters Persists"

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150319/impasse-over-negril-breakwaters-persists

" It is to be the latest in a series of meetings held in the last year to arrive at a solution."

Any of you longtime residents that have time to attend the meeting, would love to hear a "fly-on-the-wall" report.

Note, he does ask for "cool heads" to prevail.... so keep that in mind.

[rastagirl777]

Jon Tom - all of my neighbors attend as many of these meetings as they can - long and short time local residents, I'd be there if I were on island right now.

From what I hear cool heads DO prevail - these folks know how to "behave".  Its March, no boulders and the more pushback there is from the community the better.  Big ups to them, if this is allowed to happen it will be a disaster for Negril, crime "wave" or not.

[JamaGinger]

http://newsfirst.lk/english/2015/03/saving-the-beaches-of-unawatuna-begins-residents-express-appreciation/84668

[CardBoardBox]

Trivia item first. When a tsunami hits, the sea first goes out, stranding fish, then comes back. One story from 2004 said some people went for the fish and, due to folk lore, some headed for higher ground. Guess who survived?


The URL of the story and video (only 225 views) was a nice find JamaGinger. Thank you for sharing.

But before people condem the breakwater project, it must be noted of the admission that the design in Sri Lanka was wrong.

The beach was hit by a tsunami on 12/26/2004. So far, after doing a bit of searching, the only mention of that 2004 event was that natural errosion protection was swept away. Another tid-bit is the loss of beach has been one meter per year.


http://newsfirst.lk/english/2015/03/tense-situation-erupts-over-unawatuna-breakwater/81513
mentions, quote, damage caused to the Unawatuna Beach as a result of this breakwater.

http://newsfirst.lk/english/2015/03/coast-conservation-dept-steps-in-to-halt-damage-caused-to-unawatuna-beach/84246
says, quote, We constructed this breakwater to prevent sea erosion

It also says: However, environmentalists point out that the breakwater which was built with a political agenda in mind, was causing much harm to the environment.

They are pumping in sand to replace the missing beach.
Comment by me about Negril; decades ago, wide beach, and the more you walk into the sea, the deeper it was. More recently, the beach is narrow and you walk a long distance into the sea without it being deeper.

Another thing to note is the mention (?) that a breakwater requires maintance. That means money. Without it, well, think of a new road gaining pot holes which are never filled; soon old road.

http://colombogazette.com/2013/05/29/cnn-puts-unawatuna-among-worlds-best/
shows a nice picture. Looks like Negril. See date? This contradicts the photo of people walking over rocky shores in the 2015 story.

The story in the preceeding post, at http://newsfirst.lk/english/2015/03/saving-the-beaches-of-unawatuna-begins-residents-express-appreciation/84668 said:

This breakwater which we constructed in order to protect the beach, had some problems with the length in the drawing, and was the reason for this severe sea erosion. However,  sand nourishment is the most environment friendly solution to this problem.

Ski Lanka's problem, and solution(s) may not be the same as in Jamaica. Hopefully more research will point the way.

There is a computer programming saying of "There isn't time to do it right but there's always time to do it over." (Yea, doesn't apply but it is cute.) My solution is the same as New Jersey's: pump the sand back in from a hundred yards out. The sea is going to do what it wants and there is no stopping it ultimately.

A second search using googles advance feature on:
Unawatuna beach breakwater 2006 OR 2007 OR 2008 OR 2009 OR 2010 OR 2011

came up with this story and photo of Negril because it mentions the video about what breakwaters have done to Unawatuna beach:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/row-erupts-over-jamaicas-bid-to-slow-beach-erosion/

Even more significant IMO is this story:
http://www.ectsrilanka.com/media-centre/latest-news/english/977-why-the-port-city-must-be-terminated
because the google snipit description shows:

In 2011 China Communication Construction Company Limited .... has been given to a breakwater constructed near the Unawatuna beach.

The story is more of an editorial by an Environmental Trust. Read the whole thing and you may wonder if Goat Island has any parallels. What IS disturbing is granting fishing rights and other favors and this arrangement:

108 hectares (266 acres) will be given to directly to China. 20 (50 acres) forever and 88 (217 acres) on a 99 year lease.

After scanning only 3 pages of that latest search, and thinking that one country is not really concerned about what is happening someplace else (JA vs Sri Lanka), which deviates from the beach problem this post is supposed to be about, I'm upset enough to not look any further for when the breakwater was constructed or who decided that the ill-designed project got the go ahead.

[oldtimer]

As a (ret'd) fishing Capt ,again I would like to give my 2 cents worth . CONTRARY !!!!to what people think ,the tide runs ALONG !!!! the shore in Negril . Now there are waves that come ashore but the "pull " is up and down the shore TURNING !!!! at the lighthouse reef and heading south to South America . There is not enough distance between Jamaica and Cuba to get "monster waves ". IF !!!!! the breakwater is put in place and works like "they " say ,the fecal matter from the almost non working sewage treatment will be basicly trapped between the shore and breakwater every time there is a "3:00am " secret flush .This will grow in the beautiful white sand making is a strainer ,like the Morass , turning the beach into mush after awhile . If there was never anything build on Negril  beach it would look EXACTLY !!! like the pic from 20,000 leagues under the sea . Nature takes the sand , turns it over ,keeps it fresh turns it upside down and then stores it somewhere else for awhile and then brings it back . Do you actually think that when God , Jah ,Allah had swimming in mind when sand was invented . It was made to polish the ocean floor , keep it alive and clean for all time . It's like work ,sometimes you work here and sometimes you work other places , this is what the sands job is .In the span of time this 30 years of "erosion " is only a blink of an eye , a knee jerk ,the sand is there ,it will return . The other Capt ,being a man of the sea also ,will ( I'm sure ) back me up on that . "THEY" have asked non-marine people to come up with something and this is it !!! You would get better advice from a child in the mts .
Another "brillant " idea like the fuel pier . Just look at that and it's only a very few years old . As my mother would say " time and tide waits for no man "