Pattaya in crisis: 400 million baht beach washed into the sea

[webfact]

Pattaya in crisis: 400 million baht beach washed into the sea

 

 

The Pattaya Harbor Department has admitted that their best laid plans to improve the beach have gone completely pear shaped. 

 

Following a storm a huge swathe of the 400 million baht new sand project has just been washed away. It was only recently finished as was trumpeted as a lovely beach.

 

 

Ekkarat Khantharo said it was a crisis and he was extremely worried about the situation. 

 

The Pattaya News said that up to 200 meters of the beach in a dozen locations had been swept out to sea. 

 

Ekkarat was involved in damage limitation exercises and excuses - it would take a week and backhoes and heavy equipment would be use to dredge the sand from the sea and plop it back on the beach, he said.

 

He told the media that mother nature was to blame and the Harbor Department always accepted that something like this could happen. 

 

Now they plan to spend another 105 million baht over the next year. 

 

This time it will go on improving the drainage so that the sand might actually stay in place. 

 

Earlier in the week a TNAMCOT video praised the massive project to solve sand erosion on a 2.8 kilometer stretch from North to South Pattaya. It was finally completed just last month.

 

The only problem on the beautiful sands was a lack of tourists. 

 

Now the sand has been washed away in the storms and Pattaya's landmark project is in tatters. 

 

Not only are there few tourists - but there is much less sand for them to sit on. 

 

Source: The Pattaya News

 

 

 -- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-04-04

 

[Just1Voice]

This is just too funny!! ????

[JustAnotherHun]

The rest of their beautiful beach will be washed away by the waves of the next cold season. Never mind, Chinese don't stay at beautiful beaches.

Edited April 4, 2019 by JustAnotherHun

[NCC1701A]

"My god! Your house is huge and so beautiful!"

"Yes my husband sells sand to the city of Pattaya."

[darksidedog]

When the whole project was first announced, with it the news the sand would come from some way away, one of the best posts I saw was a suggestion to just take sand from Jomtien and when it washed away from Pattaya, it would end up back in Jomtien and the cycle could begin again, giving eternal profit to the southern beach.

[ThreeEyedRaven]

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

it would take a week and backhoes and heavy equipment would be use to dredge the sand from the sea and plop it back on the beach, he said.

And one more good downpour to wash it all back out to sea again. Permanent work for the dredgers it would seem then throughout the rainy season.

[NCC1701A]

"The most distant human-made object is the spacecraft Voyager 1, which – in late February 2018 – is over 13 billion miles (21 billion km) from Earth. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Now both Voyagers are heading out of our solar system, into the space between the stars. Voyager 1 officially became the first earthly craft to leave the solar system, crossing the heliopause, in 2012."

 

https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-most-distant-man-made-object-from-earth

 

Thailand 2019. Which way water flow?

[kwan]

He told the media that mother nature was to blame

..... and Mother Nature is a Farang !

[johng]

2 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

just take sand from Jomtien

Sand from Jomtien was the wrong colour ????....

 

Anyway in the video the official said of course they foresaw this problem and had been worrying about it, but now have 105 million baht to spend  on drainage measures around Pattaya with most focus on beach road...but works would not be completed by this rainy season....

So I suppose that means they'll be digging up the promenade again and to expect even worse scenes when the "proper" rains hit.

[KennethSmiles]

I can't stop laughing ????

[Peterbilt]

17 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

The rest of their beautiful beach will be washed away by the waves of the next cold season. Never mind, Chinese don't stay at beautiful beaches.

The now shorter beach is a big advantage for the Chinese, since they dont have to hike that incredible long way from their bus parking in 3rd row on Beach Rd to the boat which takes them to Koh Lan. This also means that those premium quality tourists from China aren't exposed to the sun for such a long time...... ????

 

8 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

 

Thailand 2019. Which way water flow?

Sir! Water flows the way it has been ordered to flow by the military, Sir! ????

[Justgrazing]

30 minutes ago, webfact said:

He told the media that mother nature was to blame

National characteristic of casting around for something to blame again ..

[brokenbone]

i have no malice or gleeful comments,

they tried and it didnt work out, pity.

but sand alone does not cut it anyway,

the wastewater without filter also prevent it from ever

becoming a wonderful beach

[thaibeachlovers]

15 minutes ago, johng said:

Sand from Jomtien was the wrong colour ????....

 

Anyway in the video the official said of course they foresaw this problem and had been worrying about it, but now have 105 million baht to spend  on drainage measures around Pattaya with most focus on beach road...but works would not be completed by this rainy season....

So I suppose that means they'll be digging up the promenade again and to expect even worse scenes when the "proper" rains hit.

Strangely, back in the 90s when they put really big pipes under Beach Rd the flooding wasn't as bad, but I'm assuming when they widened the road they forgot to connect the drains to the big pipes, or they got blocked with debris, or perhaps they just never cleaned the sand out of them, and 20 years of sand blocked the pipes.

The time to sort the drains was when they widened the roads, but that would have been sensible, and we know Pattaya council don't do sensible.

I'd love to be a fly on the council walls as they all try to find someone to blame. I'm guessing, but even the locals probably won't believe that it's all nature's fault.

[Fruit Trader]

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth...

 

[thaibeachlovers]

They may have wanted to try the Bkk solution, but found that the local speedboats couldn't be moved to the flooded roads.

[Bluespunk]

Brings to mind that old terrace chant from youth

 

"You don't know what you're doing,

 You don't know what you're doing,

 You don't know what you're doing,

 You don't know what you're doing,"

[Chelseafan]

Here's a radical idea - How about spending the 400m baht to actually improve the drainage and sewer systems before wasting money on building beaches.

 

[johng]

3 minutes ago, Fruit Trader said:

Ahh--ha the perfect site to dump rubbish  and crash vehicles into. 

[fruitman]

5555 even my 5 year old nephew could have told them that sandbags don't last long in the open sea.....

[kwan]

7 minutes ago, Chelseafan said:

Here's a radical idea - How about spending the 400m baht to actually improve the drainage and sewer systems before wasting money on building beaches.

 

Quite !

[johng]

1 minute ago, Chelseafan said:

Here's a radical idea

Blasphemy !!!... ????

 

I wonder how much was spent on modelling of the bay to see what effect  tearing down the old pier, building the new "marina" removing the old tress , road widening, massive amounts of new hotels and shopping malls/concrete has had on beach erosion and flooding ?

[KhunBENQ]

In China such a brainless waste of public money would be good for the firing squad or the gallows.

Whoever experienced such a rainstorm at the beach knows what's gone to happen.

I have seen that more than once. Jomtien beach devastated too.

The flow  coming down right of Central shopping at beach rd. (VT6) is strong enough to throw you off your feet.

Edited April 4, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[captnhoy]

Please, someone here on TV plug in the details about the time this happened before. Was it 5 or 6 years ago? First, they made a beach. Then it washed away. I wonder if all the budget gets spent on "beach"?

[fruitman]

13 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

In China such a brainless waste of public money would be good for the firing squad or the gallows.

Whoever experienced such a rainstorm at the beach knows what's gone to happen.

I have seen that more than once. Jomtien beach devastated too.

The flow  coming down right of Central shopping at beach rd. (VT6) is strong enough to throw you off your feet.

In Thailand you gain status with such a masterplan to get rich....now they get another 200 million baht to repair the damage!

[Tanlic]

With all the building going on it's not surprising a beach or 2 should disappear :0)

[Katipo]

It's just one tale of incompetence after another. 

[LennyW]

Another 105 million........snouts back in the trough guys!!!

[johnnykak]

im in pattaya now- it rained for like an hour or so yesterday and some rain the day before. i wonder what they think is going to happen when its rainy season? lol. 

[toenail]

Any of us who have chosen Pattaya as our home could have predicted this. After living in the city, everyone knows about the cement sois funneling volumes & volumes of rain water down to Beach Rd; thus, creating enormous erosion on the beach. This does not take a rocket scientist to figure out ; yet, the so called Thai “engineer” & university professor couldn’t figure this out ahead of time and be “pro-active” ? Next time have some farangs be consultants for your grandiose projects since locals cannot think of the “what-ifs” or take criticism.