The tragedy of Mount Lavinia Beach
Sri Lanka
Charitha Pattiaratchi
Professor at
The University of Western Australia
Studied Oceanography at
Swansea UK
My association with Mount Lavinia Beach extends to more than 40 years when I used to train for the annual 2-mile sea swim held annually on the first Sunday in March. We used to start training every weekend from January each year. Often we would walk/jog along the beach from the Surf Life Saving club to the Mount Lavinia Hotel (race starting point) and swim back. Or the reverse swim from the Surf Life Saving club to the Hotel and jog/walk back. These are wonderful memories. I have been a frequent visitor to the beach in the interveneing years and never thought that the coastline was in an eroding state.
We have examined the recent beach nourishment and have come to the following conclusions:
1. Sand nourishment of Mount Lavinia beach appears to have no tangible outcomes with respect to aims of the project. The exercise appears to have been undertaken without adequate planning,detailed studies and ignoring basic coastal engineering principles.
2. The Coast Conservation Department has stated that the aim of the project is to create a 15 m beach at Wellawatte through the sand engine method. Here, 150,000 m3 of sand was placed on Mount Lavinia beach and is expected to be transported to Wellawatte.
3. A considerable amount of money has been spent. It is expected, through design or otherwise, that the majority of the sand will be washed away from Mount Lavinia beach after the south-west monsoon season.
4. The coastline between Mount Lavinia and Wellawatte has remained relatively stable for many decades albeit with seasonal changes.
5. The sand deposited at Mount Lavinia has to pass three major natural and artificial structures: Rock at Aponso Avenue and the training groynes at the two canal outlets at Dehiwala and Wellawatte.
6. The percentage of sand deposited at Mount Lavinia making it as far as Wellawatte is likely to be small and certainly not large enough to create a 15 m beach. Also consider that the existing seasonal change in the beach is larger than 15 m per annum.
7. The additional sand supply could impact the coastal reef systems and affect the siltation patterns of the Dehiwala and Wellawatte canal outlets.
