7MB erosion now a priority for UPM, says minister
(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan has revealed that the minority UPM government is working on a public-private partnership of some kind to undertake an undefined replenishment project to address what he said was the national emergency of erosion on Seven Mile Beach.
During his address at the Chamber of Commerce Legislative Luncheon on Thursday, he said the government was in the process of finalising options with the Department of Environment for the fastest way forward to re-nourish the affected areas on the southern end of the famous beach.
The ongoing erosion of the country’s major tourist attraction has been happening slowly for several years for a number of reasons, not least the excessive number of hard structures, including decks, pools, and sea walls, that have been allowed to be developed on the dynamic beach area.
The situation reached a crisis point this year. The government, however, appears reluctant to enforce the necessary managed retreat of those hard structures, which will be a necessary requirement if any costly beach nourishment project is to be anything more than a brief reprieve.
Bryan told the audience of Chamber members that having “categorised this issue as a national environmental and economic emergency”, the CIG will be increasing the National Conservation Fund or the tourism accommodation tax “to raise the monies to cover the cost of future re-nourishment initiatives, as it is accepted that, with the global weather changes, beach erosion will continue to
be an issue of the future”.
Bryan said the government also intends to talk with affected property owners and tourism stakeholders about a PPP funding model to pay for the initial re-nourishment strategy, but he offered few details on that idea to the Chamber audience.
Speaking to the Chamber President Joanna Lawson in a brief staged Q&A after his address, Bryan said that the government was hoping to speed up the procurement process on the renourishment project using the constitutional provision for a national emergency.
He accepted that this was still in debate as government was having “some challenges with that” definition, but said most people would consider that it was.
“The longer we delay, the worse it gets, so we are trying to speed that up,” he said about the procurement. “It’s going to take a multi-million dollar approach,” he said, noting the time it can take to go through a procurement exercise.
He said the government was still talking to the AG’s office as well as stakeholders, and the government hoped to soon have a clear path and a timeline for this project so they could tell people how long it is going to take to get back to the familiar Seven Mile Beach.
However, all of the experts have said that without a managed retreat, the renourishment project could prove to be a waste of money.
The government had allocated $21 million to work on the nourishment project in the 2022 budget year. However, a series of meetings on the issue stopped abruptly in 2022 and the money, which was not spent, was reallocated into the general budget.
No new funding has been set aside since in the subsequent budget years. The government is now looking at a shared funding model with the landowners directly impacted being asked to contribute, and some have indicated willingness to partner with the CIG.
Speaking recently at the Cayman Islands Tourism Association’s annual meeting, Bryan called the erosion at the southern end of Seven Mile Beach “simply staggering”.
Ergun Berksoy, the owner of a large private house close to the Royal Palms site who constructed a seawall on the dynamic beach and has suffered the consequences, has pledged $3 million towards the renourishment project.
It’s not clear which other owners are willing to contribute or if the government is going to take the advice of the scientists and require some managed retreat to prevent the costly sand that will be placed in front of these seawalls and other concrete structures from being washed away in the first storm.
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Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Hurricane Ivan was the main cause of what has happened. It removed most of the offshore sand and put it inland. It has never been replaced back into the water so that the sand can migrate up and down the beach. Nobody remembers this. The sand needs to be replaced on the beach and a Beach replenishment landing tax needs to be done. The tax only needs to be $10 or $15 per head to manage sand replacement so that Tourists and Caymanians have the beach they desire and need for jobs.
Jobs for who? Certainly not Caymanians.
The CPA members should be banned from participating in development projects.
They excuse themselves when their project come up, but we all know its about trading favours.
STOP the break walls, STOP insane over development of small land plots like the AQUA Bay redevelopment.
since when did cig start having priorities?????
When there is a general election coming up.
Erosion of Government should be first priority but alas our resident E foil rider too busy feathering her own Nest and guarding the financial Egg!
It is only a priority now, because it is seen as a way to get votes, that is the only reason.
It’s a priority because it’s damaging uncle Darts real estate interests. And Darts priorities are Kenny’s. And Joeys. And Macs.
I am no marine scientist but while in high school I took a one year course in marine science. I vaguely remember reading that the sea ebbs and flows and if let alone to do so it will replace what is taken away eventually. I also remember that Caymanians rarely built any structures below the high water mark. I read somewhere that if these structures are taken down the beach will fix itself. Mr. Bryan and this UPM farce of a government , whatever extra funds are in our treasury please use it to fix the landfill, upgrade our schools and university, recruite and pay the best qualified teachers , upgrade the hospital and clinics etc.,etc. There millionaires who erected these barriers should cover the costs of tearing them down and return our beach to its original state.
I attended the event which is usually a valuable opportunity to hear about upcoming legislation and initiatives, but this year was profoundly disappointing. There were no meaningful specifics, no genuine initiatives to address the rising cost of living, and no substantive updates on critical Financial Services legislation due by December. Instead, we got a rehash of well-worn solutions to longstanding problems, presented as if they were new ideas. It felt like a waste of time, and I suspect the Chamber must be embarrassed by such an underwhelming performance.
The proposal by Health City to provide lower cost insurance was an interesting announcement, at least.
Maybe proximity to Dart has taught them the value of vertical business models?
Over the many years the gov’t including the current one allowed the residential and commercial properties along the SMB (AKA 3 MB NOW), the rubber stamping of Planning Department ALL OF THE HOTELS, CONDOS/APTS and PRIVATES RESIDENCIES to do wtf they wanted ignoring all laws and common sense actions to preserve the beach along this stretch of Grand Cayman. Now unna want ti cry innocent and want to what… Whatever you do we the ordinary citizens and residents of these islands should not be made to pay a red cent to your coffle to rectify the problem.
How about starting by:
1. EACH member of Parliament donating a portion of unna salary (5%) to any monies needed to rectify the problem
AND
2. Place A 10% ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX on every last piece of property along ‘SMB’ stretch, commercial and residencial, that is on the beach side, regardless of ownership to get monies to fund whatever you are going to do to rectify the problem.
3. LEAVE US ORDINARY CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS THE HELL ALONE TO CONTINUE TO BARELY SURVIVE IN THIS COUNTRY by NOT LEVYING ANY TAX THAT WILL DIRECTLY AFFECT THE LITTLE INCOME WE CAN BARELY HOLD ON TO NOW!
If people would just take a look at Cancun as an example as to what is most likely to happen here if they go down the replenishment of sand avenue.
Cancun started replenishing about 20 yrs ago for $19M, ended up around $100M by the mid-20teens. And they’ll be going again soon. Whenever they replenish, the process is an eyesore and entirely subject to waves and weather. It also ended up creating extremely steep ledges of sand, but that’s just one of many factors we probably wont consider.
The only permanent solution that will work is managed retreat. It is a generational solution. Tough luck everybody currently invested in SMB, you had your time. But if we go the sand replenishment route, all we’re doing is kicking the problem down the road for the next generation. Why should we be so entitled?
Sand replenishment can devastate the ecology of the beach and coral. it is short term. It will cost much more than we think. its completely susceptible to storms , which do come here you may have noticed.
Someone stop the madness and greed, tear down the seawalls and commence a retreat that may take 20-30-40 years but on the bright side, it has already began if you look at where the Kimpton main building footprint is, the WaterMark, etc.
Just once maybe think long term?
As the DOE bots will happily remind you when it suits their narrative, Cayman is not Cancun and what happens in Cancun has no bearing on SMB.
Pushing a cruise pier on the people while saying that SMB erosion is now a priority, this GT village idiot is a walking contradiction. Get gone crazy man!
This right here!!! When we lose SMB in its entirety due to this cruise pier, we lose tourism all together, and then, Kenneth will say, “I tried my best.”
A public, private partnership ‘of some kind’ tells you all you need to know. The private part of this partnership will hold all the cards while CIG will have its hand on the bit covered in dog turd. CIG, stop trying to pretend you know what you’re doing. The combined intellect of room temperature. With the AC on.
Governing by crisis…
The illegal billboard issue plaguing our once beautiful island is of far greater importance.
Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself
Give him too much rope and he’ll hang many others. The Cayman electorate has given their Ministers a rope factory!
What’s it going to cost US? You know, US, the poor bastards who have to pay for it, but will never realise any personal profit from it?
I continue to think that those who caused the problem (CPA and heartless money-grubbing developers) should pay for the consequences of their own greed.
Now that the erosion is affecting rich landowners and hotel beachfront properties its suddenly an issue of national importance
People have been talking about this for years – just took the special interest groups to get it bumped up to the front of the line I guess
How much would I contribute? ZERO! Nothing until CIG enforces its current laws, follows best environmental practices and gets rid of its corrupt politicians. My money is safe (although I would willingly contribute if the above concerns are met).
Mr. Dart tear down your wall and your cabana?
By 2030 Cayman will be bankrupt and these MLAs are only setting up their nest eggs for when the bucket drops out at the well.
Dart does not want to move their structures so they will buy what ever politicians they need to to make “their replenishment plan” work. It sounds like that ids what Kenny is planting the seeds for. Dart will get his way and Kenny will make sure of that. Wake up people, we no longer have control of our country.
UPM got to go!! Especially the Moron of Tourism!
Kinda late Kenneth
We need forward thinkers who put the country’s best interest at heart
It is remarkable how he believes his own ish. A fella with very little self control. Loves to scream at people in meetings.
Agreed, and make sure they take PPM with them when they go 👍
Tell that to his GTC voters.
will the Andre followers show their discust for the remaining Ministers and show the country what good governance is and resign from the board appointments Andre gave them? I think not. But why?
#SaveRoyalPalms❤️🫶🏽
Coulda, shoulda done that before Dart got his hands on it. But Kirkconnels, Bush and Dart must have had another one of those ‘special’ private pow wows I guess.
If only, well gone, never be same@
Too late
Dum Diddy doo Diddy and Dart daddy?
Lololol
All these crooks are doing is making back room deals with Dart and giving raises to everyone to buy votes. Next will be that Dart will build this cruise dock (a deal so good we couldn’t refuse) and get all the taxes from it. Put them all in jail and ship this governor who is clearly sitting in O’Connor-Connolly’s lap back to England.
What a waste of space the Governor is. Only concerned about parties and photo ops.
too little, too late bobo
Why would anyone with a lick of ‘Common sense’ even consider Importing sand?
It is the one natural resource that CAYMAN has plenty of!
The sand has not disappeared, it has simply migrated to deeper water.
We can recover this sand and use it to replenish the beach without any major impact to the environment because it would eventually be ‘lost’ as it migrates to deeper water.
The most important fix is to REMOVE the structures that have caused this issue in the first place. Wave energy is dissipated on the natural gentle slope of the beach.
When we build retaining walls and structures too close to the shoreline, we interfere with the natural ebb & flow.
Finally, Beaches are dynamic, there will ALWAYS be erosion, movement & recovery.
What we need to do is manage our impact and not over-think solutions.
If something we have done causes a problem, then the fix is to REVERSE that action.
How will you get the sand back that has disappeared over the west wall to depths of a 1000 plus feet?
A pipe and a pump – the science and technology is not that hard – but importing it gives better opportunity for kickbacks and commissions.
Short answer: Never will happen! Cayman pissed it away due to allowing the hard structures.
Also, how would it be expected to dredge sand from a minimal (eg: 150’), without destroying surrounding coral fingers and pinnacles that are that far down the wall, which would create silt would literally cover everything ?
I get where they are going in the direction of replenishment , but it’s a total waste of time without removing the contributors that we all know ( Turners house retaining wall, T.I. Grotto , etc).
It took 20 years for the sand to disappear. It is not going to go away in a year or even a couple of years. Furthermore, the cost is not expensive as the article says, the cost of 21 million is miniscule compared to the value of the property and the value to the government and the people of Cayman. Real estate values will go up, tourism will rebound along this stretch, the tarnished image of Seven Mile Beach will be gone, government will make vastly more revenue from property sales and tourism taxes. The list of benefits goes on and on. Thank goodness Kenny is driving this forward – it is a national emergency.
All the blow bag politicians will go down there and blow it back up.
LOL
What caused the issue before it made its way to the structures?
Boss Dart says this is not the problem, so all you no it all need to shut up. The Dart organization knows what is best for us and thankfully our elected officials and head civil servants know this. Lead the way honorable Bryant!
just dumping sand on the beach won’t work. first storm It will be washed away. need a solution to hold the sand n place whether it’s an under water groyne for ex
Common sense is not do common!
I agree with all of “Common Sense’s comment if marine engineers can pump the sand up from 700′ deep on the talus slope, aka deep island slope at the base of the wall. It would have to be de-watered on a barge hanging far enough down wind to prevent silt landing on the wall/reef. That won’t be easy or cheap to do well due to currents and the drag on a hose that long. I can see how it could work and would love to advise the project director from the experience of my 2,500 dives as pilot of the deep subs to that area. The other part of the equation rarely mentioned is restoration of the 3 largest species of parrotfish that used to create over 80% of all new sand on islands like ours, but that were fished down to insignificant numbers by the early 1980’s around the time the beach began to recede and they have not recovered despite the marine parks. If this is the true emergency that we all recognize, shouldn’t parrotfish be given TOTAL protection rather than just the current no spearfishing status recently given to them? They were the main source of the original sand and we need to restore them ASAP!
What about the Dump?
This is a Marriott problem. They all can build their guests a sandbox to play in, and/or rebrand to a scuba dive resort!!
It is a Cayman Islands problem!
They created the problem, fix it by removing the structure.
Stop trying to fight Mother Nature. It’s a waste of money. Tear down the offending structures and adhere to the set back requirements in future. Stop letting individual developers rule.
Just go away far away he is a total mess. This guy is completely out of his depth again spouting nonsense
Poor Kenneth it’s obvious he is for sale to the highest bidders
Kenneth is the new Mac…
Get used to him…his uneducated GTC voters will keep his snout in the trough again.
He will be financed by those who used to rely on Mac for Status and other favors.
Hopefully he will be relegated to the back benches where he and Saunders will , like Mac, just rabble rouse and generally make a nuisance of themselves.
Poor Kenny?. More like Poor Cayman!!
how could the chamber sit there and listen this man with straight face????
Because the profligate idiocy which he is spouting is a verbatim parroting of their agenda which he has been ‘influenced’ to carry out as an agent of their vain, asinine, arrogant and myopic agenda and interests at the expense of everyone and everything else.
The carnival continues as does the heinous status quo which got Grand Cayman into this mess in the first place.
He is just their bobble headed henchman whose con is to pretend that he is something or than that of a disingenuous, bobble headed, bandulu business con man.
Those who are directly responsible for the loss of sands due to their conceited, elitist and arrogantly purposeful destruction, desecration and/or disruption of the naturally occurring hydrology and ecology of beach ridge sand accretion are the only ones who shall be made to pay for any and/or all efforts to mitigate the issues which they themselves have created as a directly correlative result of their own vile hubris and illegitimately derived power and influence which has directly resulted in the loss of our beaches.
Anything else is unjust and unacceptable in the extreme.
It is not justifiable to spend one singular copper ching ching of the public’s monies, beyond what it would take to tear their buildings and their seawalls down, out, and away.
These are the consequences of a poetic justice of their very own making which they are the causative factor for and of, and as such, they are the ones to be made to pay the bill for any efforts at remediation regardless of whether or not said efforts are and shall be proven to be akin to taking hold of a kitchen broom in a ludicrously vain attempt to keep an incoming sea at bay.
You were warned decades ago.
Yabadabooo..more people coming out and speaking truth at last and articulately spoken, poetry to read!
Nobody in 2024 should be afraid to speak the truth, even by our’Anonymous’ we seen and heard enough lies, deception and corruption degrading these Islands by their own people!
@4:11 so when SMB has all washed away, and tourism’s contribution to our GDP disappears with it, and Govt is forced to implements direct taxation, who will you blame then for allowing that situation to materialise? Think a bit further ahead than your nose, it’s not too difficult.
Tourism is almost worthless to Cayman. At best it its value is neutral; more likely, it is negative because it (a) brings in very little value to Caymanians (as opposed to high-end expat owners of hotels, and low-end expat workers); (b) further destroys what’s left of the natural the environment; (c) contributes to further corruption in MLAs; and (d) discourages more sensible investment into skilled trades.
Skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, welding, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) installation provide invaluable career opportunities for local children in the Cayman Islands who may be unsuited to the financial services industry, equipping them with practical skills that are essential for the development and maintenance of the community’s infrastructure. That would be a more sensible economic direction than tourism.
Tourism is toxic, and in fact Cayman is utterly dependent on the financial services sector, as Marla Dukharan confirmed earlier this year: https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/03/bryan-challenges-report-on-low-value-of-cayman-tourism.
Obviously, however, Kickback Kenny can’t get bribes – sorry, I meant “campaign contributions” from the heavily-regulated financial services sector, hence his enthusiasm for developers who will happily splash the cash to buy influence.
The CIG!! Because if they build the pier, you can kiss SMB goodbye.
Tourism isn’t, and never was our golden goose. Financial services is.
And don’t charge the tourists either!
Thank you for this. Not. A. Single. Copper. Ching-Ching
Its a thrush, actually.
Whats that you say? I missed the forest for the trees? Oops.
Privatize the profits but socialize the losses.
Because Dart is leading the chamber of commerce.
laughable….just look at the dump….the perfect monument to the failures and incompetence of caymanian mla’s and their attitude towards the environment.
Leave the dump alone as Honorable Jon-Jon and the Premier have it all sorted out with the Dart group so you can rest easy.