Coastal erosion, waves sweeping the beach away
Welcome to post-Carnival depression. We must wait another full year, before being allowed again to be creatively wasteful and environmentally irresponsible.
I visited two beaches on Carnival Monday. The onshore winds of last week, did some damage, but the color of the water was fantastic, and we know that over time, the optics will improve.
The subject of beach erosion is familiar to all of us. Mother Nature gives and takes, and last week, as a seasonal blessing, the sand migrated from popular areas, swept back into the deep, where it came from, or deposited on the coastline next door.
In the past, slowly but repeatedly, when sand disappeared from coastal areas in Aruba, DOW pumped new sand in, with the help of giant dredging equipment or by hauling it in trucks, from the Barcadera area, when it has been stored from dredging the harbor in Oranjestad.
We all know these are just band-aids, temporary fixes because coastal erosion is here to stay and the practice of beach nourishment, that’s what they call the filling of sand, is an accepted strategy along groins, sea walls and wave breakers.
I just read about a new strategy that is supposed to hold up to 20 years, maybe more, financed by the World Bank, and engineered with the help of major Dutch technical firms, building Beach Sand Motors, which are not motors at all. They are just called zandmotor.
The new beach nourishment strategy involves building a huge moon-shaped sand barrier, a kind of artificial peninsula, which feeds the beach instead of eroding it. The wave action pushes the sand onto the beach, borrowing it from the moon-shaped landmass and spreading it along the shorelines.
They are busy creating Sand Motors in West Africa to protect the continent against the Atlantic, they have built some in the UK and in southern Netherland. These are billion-dollar projects.
The zandmotor work in areas where erosion is mildly threatening, so Caribbean islands are out of the question, besides we are poor, we devoted all our resources and energy to Carnival and cannot be thinking about the economic, health and social disruptions, the sea might bring.
More plastic, not less
One of my American friends asked me what we are doing today with yesterday’s costumes, and I had to admit that nothing much. The metal frames are saved for next year, but the glittering synthetic fabrics, and fake Swarovski, along with the dyed feathers are heading to the dump, most probably. Some would be used at the hotel Carnival shows but the majority of the breathtaking beauty and excellent craftmanship we saw on parade, is doomed to go to the land fill.
I saw an article today, that reported that California ‘s ban on single-use shopping bags backfired, because the single-use bags were replaced by the much larger, heavier, and thicker so-called reusable grocery bags.
California now reports a 47% jump by weight, of plastic waste, in ten years, and that is not due to population growth but due to the larger, heavier, thicker reusable bags that replaced the flimsy, single-use variety.
I have many of these nonbiodegradable sacks hanging around, a full collection. They are now choking the planet further.
California will reword the legislation to try to do away with that hazard.
We also read about New Jersey: Plastic consumption in New Jersey tripled despite the state’s 2022 plastic ban meant to and address the “problem of plastic pollution,” according to a study from a business-research firm.
We wouldn’t know what the situation is here, we don’t measure, or do we?
