The matter of erosion of the beach between the Wellawatta station and the Wellawatta canal (the Bambalapitiya end of Wellawatta) had been highlighted before. (Island of June 17, 1999). No action has been taken by any relevant authority to rectify this situation. This beach in the heart of Colombo got built up after the construction of the two groynes flanking the canal outlet to the sea and with the sand piling up against the Southern groyne. This beach has a certain amount of erasion during the South West monsoon and gets rebuilt during the North East monsoon period when calm weather prevails on the West coast. It would appear that in this area the beach builds up when the water current runs North and erodes when the water current runs South.

At this time of the year in February the beach here has to be at perhaps its broadest but on the contrary, it is now at its narrowest since known times. The fence of the Internationally famous Beach Wadiya and also some of the few full grown coconut trees had fallen due to the erosion. The Kinross Swimming and Lifesaving Club members are perhaps making a vain attempt to save a line of coconut trees using tyres as buffer against waves the time seems limited as the roots are now exposed deep. The question now is whether this beach could go through the monsoon when much erosion would take place. This is so especially when the monsoon waves could quickly demolish the half broken groyne that still remains.

The reason for the erosion of this beach seems to be the gradual destruction of the groyne due to wave action. If so saving this beach requires only the building up the seaward section of the South Groyne that is demolished. But unfortunately there seems no one responsible who could take decisions on this matter. The Coast Conservation Department and the UDA have both been proposing a beach park in this area. It is time officials of these two departments walked on this beach to find out whether there would be a beach to have a park. Many meetings have been held spanning a few years on this proposed beach park while the beach has been gradually disappearing with nobody taking the most vital step of conserving the beach in order to have a beach park.

It is informed that at the last meeting on the beach park by the UDA, which had been held at the Mayors office, it had been decided to build up the beach at the Dehiwala end of Wellawatta first on the principle of groynes.

At an early meeting of the UDA on the subject of the beach park the suggestion given to the UDA had been the building up of the beach through artificial sand nourishment a very expensive process. The writer who was present at this meeting suggested the least expensive method of repairing the existing groyne and let nature nourish the beaches with the sand and also of using the same process at the South end of Wellawatta.

If conserving the beach at the Bambalapitiya end of Wellawatta requires the repair of the existing groyne then the work should start now as the monsoon will be setting in shortly in order to minimise the erosion that occurs during the monsoon. Unless responsibility is fixed on who and what has to be done this matter will simply get postponed till there is no beach remaining or it comes to a critical stage when expensive emergency measures would have to be resorted to. Which of course some that stand to benefit from expensive contracts would be hoping for.

Repairing the existing groyne cannot be very expensive as it is a question of filling up with rock a section of perhaps 30 or 40 meters of the broken groyne. Even in the damaged area, the base is well compacted and the amount of filling or building up will be much less than building up a new structure.

The Coast Conservation Department has to be held responsible regarding the conservation of this beach. It is they that have the necessary expertise on this field and the Coast Conservation Department should inform the public on what they have in mind regarding this beach and what they recommend as method of conservation.

If it is a question of the necessary funds what must be considered is that a beach in the heart of a city is a rare commodity and considered as extremely valuable property in any country or city. Perhaps the fund managers of the various public institutions that should be involved in conserving this beach are still not aware of the situation in order to allocate funds. A public awareness campaign could get a lot of donation as this is a very popular beach where many come for seabathing, swimming, exercising and relaxation.

It would be a simple matter for the Coast Conservation Department to present to the public their estimate of the cost to repair the existing groyne.

At least, it would show the powers in charge whether the country could afford this sum or not. Whether country or the coast conservation could afford this filling or not, the Bambalapitiya side of the groyne next to the police club has been filled up. The question is whether this filling has the approval of the Coast Conservation Department and who funded it? It is possible that the rapid deterioration of the South groyne and the erosion could be a result of this filling as when the relative lengths of the two groynes gets altered there would be a change in the pattern of the eddy currents formed as the water flows past these two groynes and could result in scouring of the sand South of the groyne.

It is necessary to question official inaction and delay perhaps for some the saying "stitch in time saves nine" could come to mean nine times less contract value and the associated trimmings.
A. C. de Almeida
Paiyagala