Site contributor Michael was alarmed by what he found at Tanjung Bungah Beach and sent in this revealing photo-story.

Site contributor Michael was alarmed by what he found at Tanjung Bungah Beach and sent in this revealing photo-story.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26541172@N08/sets/72157635287078060/?share=mail

Michael reports:

You can see the base of the public access steps located between the Sea-wind Hotel and The Naza Hotel.

The photos then are taken from this point (to a distance of about 400m) moving right facing the ‘built’ frontage (my back to sea). The concrete drain pipes are in front of the low-level Sri Pantai Motel to the immediate right of Naza Hotel. They were all standing upright and firm, aligned along the same line as the Naza concrete foundations when we arrived in December 2010.

Since then they have been repeatedly attacked by storm wave action and then fixed – to no avail. The sea has undercut the bank once protected by the pipes so that this Motel has lost a couple of metres of land.

The trees with their roots exposed were stable and within the grass surrounds. First, the coconut trees (at least six or seven of them) progressively fell over as the sand was stripped from the beach. You can see some roots half buried in the sand.

Then after the coconut trees were destroyed the big ‘umbrella trees’(?) started losing sand around their roots until they look like they are today.

Further, along on the beachfront of the Chinese Swimming club and the skyscraper ‘MY Home’, the land and the grass areas are disappearing, and there is a bank where before the grass had a smooth slope to the beach. Palms planted about two years ago in the grass are now dying and many are growing from the sand. Trees planted are stunted and will not survive.

The last photos I took are of the steps leading back to the public access. They are very steep and I noticed the heavily rusted support barrier had finally given way, making this a very treacherous route to the beach. The only safe route to the beach is now next to the Tanjung Bungah Hotel at least 800m further along.

Going by Michael’s timeline, surely this erosion was not caused by the 2004 tsunami! (An E & O consultant had blamed the tsunami for the sedimentation at Gurney Drive.)

And now, what will be the impact on Tanjung Bungah Beach of Phase 2 of the Seri Tanjung Pinang land reclamation? -anilnetto