The government of St. Kitts and Nevis to undertake coastal erosion mitigation project

Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 19, 2019 (SKNIS): Minister with responsibility for Tourism, the Honourable Lindsay Grant, said that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is to undertake a coastal erosion mitigation project.

During the Parliament on Tuesday, December 18, 2019, Minister Grant said, “Once completed, it will not just only protect the beach, it will also protect and complement the significant investment and major infrastructural upgrades that we have taking place on the strip.”

Mr. Grant stated that similar beach nourishment exercises were undertaken by the previous administration, but it was “short-lived.”

Honourable Grant said that “The necessary follow-through for the construction of the groins and the breakwaters was not carried out as recommended.”

Mr. Grant highlighted that the marine engineers encouraged the previous government to use groins and breakwaters, but it was to no avail.

As a result, the millions of taxpayer dollars that the previous administration spent on the nourishment of the beach was “washed back into the sea in a matter of months, if not weeks,” according to the Minister of Tourism.

Minister Grant said, however, “not this time, because this unity government and my ministry, we don’t do things halfway. Rather, we see our projects through full completion and so the paper arrangements have been finalised for the necessary submerged breakwaters and the other structures being installed to retain the sand as the beach is being nourished.”