The Secretary of Tourism, Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, has stated that the new beach restoration project will occupy the first 3 months of 2009 and will be completed by the end of March. He also spoke on the subjects of the loss of of the beaches, and the ineffective enforcement of the General Law of Vida Silvestre (LGVS) that protects the mangrove swamps and the upcoming revisions to those laws. You can read the whole article here: http://www.novenet.com.mx/portada.php?id=121580&d=03&m=09&y=2008 but be warned that Novedades is having major scripting problems with their web server and you may get a page of gobbledy gook. In what I think is a high pile of hyperbole, Torres stated that in light of 38% of the currency entering Mexico coming through Cancun, it is necessary to improve the beach situation. 38%? Can anybody confirm that as a real number?
This is interesting and I really hope it's true or we can kiss goodbye to the national tourism as well as the decreasing international tourism. It's a shame to see the beaches in such a bad state as they are right now.
When I lived there in 2002, I read an article in a newspaper about the needed restoration of the beaches at that point, way pre-Wilma. The article explained the position of the hotels that why fund it when the beaches are federal property. The federal government felt the hotels should be a lot more involved as the beaches are in their immediate interest... blah blah back and forth. I am very happy to see it is being done, it's just messed up that an event like Wilma had to make it so.
hi everyone, We're going back to the Royal Sands at the end of February 09. Any idea if they'll be pumping sand all over us when we're there? I looked at the article, pero no hablo espanol muy bien. ;-) Thanks!
Ahhhh the perennial beach restoration saga continues. Everyone wants it but no one wants to pay for it. Last time (after Wilma) President Fox put up about $30 million dollars to do from Punta Cancun (Hyatt Regency) to Punta Nizuc (Club Med). They did it and it lasted a couple of years tops. Now with about $25 million they are going to redo all of the beaches in the state of Quintana Roo. Yeah--right!. (Below is something I posted at the beginning of 2006 right before they started the last beach restoration.) Posted on: 6:50 am, January 25, 2006 Save From a neat news blog at: afterwilma.info/2006/…more-51 "Cancún’s beaches should start to get fresh sand from Jan. 30th Belgian maritime engineering and construction giant Jan De Nul has begun to assemble machinery and equipment in preparation for the recovery of miles of Cancún’s beaches lost to Hurricane Wilma. The first ‘reclaimed’ sands will begin to be vacuumed onto the beach before the end of January. Operations will start at the Hilton Cancún Golf & Spa Resort and move south, in the direction of Punta Nizuc (see map) Crews will then return to the Hilton and move north towards Punta Cancún Between two and 2.8m cubic meters of sand will be dredged from two offshore sandbanks. A little over half a mile (0.9km) of beach will be reclaimed each week. The work is being supervised by engineers from the Federal Electricity Company (CFE) and is expected to be complete by the end of April. The Cancún Hotel Association is considering the possibility of requesting more funds from the federal government to extend the width of the beach to 60m - more than double the 22 to 28m agreed with Jan de Nul. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was in the paper today about how they are going to put walls on the sea bed about 200 metres from the beach to sto the erosion and so that the new beaches will stay protected. From all the diagrams and things it all looks good - we'll see if it happens.
Last time, if I understand correctly, they vacuumed sand from just north of Isla Mujeres. Since then Playa Norte in IM has disappeared because its sand supply was taken away. Part of Isla Blanca's beach has disappeared as well because of the same thing. This time they should vacuum sand from right in front of Playa Mamitas in Playa del Carmen...they don't need such a nice beach there.
