Hoi An projects could wash away

These projects include Sunrise Hoi An Resort owned by Ocean Hospitality & Service JSC, Hoi An Hideway Resort, a resort developed by Hoi An Tourist Holding Company and the other project of Cu Lao Cham Tourist JSC.

Just three years ago, those resorts were protected by a wide band of  sandy beach stretching tens of metres from their construction site to the sea. Today, the sea has eroded deeply along a seven kilometre stretch of Cua Dai beach in the famous, historic Hoi An city, a popular tourist destination south of Danang.

Truong Van Bay, Deputy Chairman of Hoi An Municipal People’s Committee, said sea erosion “severely” threatened tourism property projects located on this beach. A developer has even had to stop construction of a five-star hotel and villa project because sea eroded into construction site itself after washing away the beach. Though the developer has built a small concrete dam close to villas to prevent erosion, the construction has not been resumed yet. This project looks deserted at this time.
The developer of this project refused to comment on this issue when contacted by VIR.

The current situation of those affected projects raised a question on the environmental risk assessment of their developers when deciding to invest into this area, especially in the context of that Vietnam is the most vulnerable nation to climate change. This also a warning for other resort projects located on Cua Dai beach, which so far have not yet been affected by sea erosion.

A wrong assessment on environment risk could cause losses for developers or increase investment costs at the projects. Ocean Hospitality and Service JSC, for example, had to invest more $1.5 million to Sunrise Hoi An Resort project to prevent erosion, Sven A.Saebel, general director of the resort, said in an announcement posted on its official website.

“We have worked over the last three years with foreign and local experts to review how to prevent further erosion from affecting our famous Cua Dai beach, which was reduced by more than 50 metres during the last typhoon in 2009.” A.Saebel said.

To protect  Cua Dai beach from erosion, Quang Nam Provincial People’s Committee decided to spend VND400 billion or $19.2 million at current exchange rate to build a seven kilometre dam along the beach.

Bay said a sum of about VND60 billion ($2.8 million), was disbursed. But he said developers should have had their own measures to protect their properties while waiting for the dam completion.