Study explains erosion at Monkey River; quick action needed

If you look at old maps you’ll find that a half century ago the village of Monkey River was actually a town, and if you talk to the old heads you’ll hear about a busy sawmill, thriving commerce, and a bustling community. But the big logs eventually grew scarce, the mill shut down, and the dwindling number of residents reverted to fishing and farming. But a dying economy was not the only challenge faced by the residents of Monkey River. News Five has been following the loss of its beach for a decade now and the situation remains precarious.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Since we last visited Monkey River Village in June of 2006 the beach has continued to erode. On Friday when we returned to the coastal community we discovered that this upstairs wooden house we left only a year ago no longer existed. All that remains are its concrete posts and a septic tank.

The villagers estimate that in the last year and a half another fifty feet of beach has been lost and a total of three houses collapsed. Today the cemetery is under imminent threat along with several properties including the home of the late Eleanor Sandlin, the former village chairperson, who up until her recent passing worked hard to save the community’s shoreline. The neighbours are more worried than ever about the future.

Kazerine Garbutt, Secretary, Monkey River Village
“Well we are very concerned because people live close to the beach and they are fearing that they will lose their homes. … Well we can’t do anything about it you know, we are just watching it. I hope that some help can come and we can try to help with the erosion.”

In an effort to address the problem, the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, PACT, commissioned Galen University to conduct a study to determine what factors are contributing to the beach erosion and what could be done to stop it. On Friday those findings were presented to the villagers.

Dr. Colin Young, Professor, Galen University
“And interestingly most of these things are happening way outside of Monkey River Village proper.”

According to Doctor Colin Young, the three month study revealed that both natural and manmade factors are responsible. Young says one of the problems is the amount of water being diverted from the river for agricultural purposes.

Dr. Colin Young
“We calculated that it is millions and millions of gallons of water everyday being extracted for agricultural use. We’ve also documented increased deforestation along the watersheds, deforestation impacts sediments because it creates more sediment in the river.”

“We know there are about thirteen sites in total where they are extracting gravel and sand. And while the amount of sand is not the problem because there is a lot of sand in the river, mining changes the flow of the river. … The wave action, hurricanes, the frequency in storms. However, these things are now having a greater impact precisely because the sand isn’t coming and so we are now seeing the effects of those, but those are always occurring in Monkey River.”

Dr. Young says there are no easy solutions and he admits that it will take a multi-sectoral approach and a strong political will to save Monkey River Village.

Dr. Colin Young
“In fact we found out that approximately sixty percent of all the land that is used to grow banana happens in the Monkey River watershed. So it is a tremendous amount of banana being grown here and there is citrus, there are mangoes and there are shrimp farms. … All of a sudden it becomes also a political issue because how do you how do you ask those people to do less of what they are doing.”

It is a challenge that PACT’s Grants Programme Director Sharon Perera says they recognize but are committed to help solve, particularly since Monkey River Village is one of the primary buffering communities of at least six protected areas.

Sharon Perera, Grants Programme Director, PACT
“We have been discussing for over a year now with the village council and with the National Association of Village Councils on how we can help to support some of the initiatives in this community and this being—the beach erosion situation being one of the major activities occurring significantly impacts on the socio-economic well being of the community.”

The villagers were briefed on a number of long and short term plans of action that can address the problem of beach erosion.

Sharon Perera
“One of the short term recommendations is village expansion, see how we can expand more inland and see how we can move the community more inland until the situation is address here. And so that is probably one of the short term recommendations we are looking at.”

“For the most part in the short term, PACT is in it to support the village council to see what short term recommendations can come out of this. If it is beach nourishment, then probably there is something that we can do in the short term in terms of placing some of sand that has been lost.”

Other possible solutions include a sea wall and jetties. But as efforts are being made to stop the erosion, the loss has not prevented the one hundred and eighty residents from trying to revitalize their community through tourism.

Kazerine Garbutt
“I am sure that something can be done and with this study you know things can work out because a lot of people do not want to lose their village and we will not move from here.”

Sharon Perera
“The community has passion for conservation and for protecting the natural resources and sustainably developing their community and so that is the driving force behind this initiative.”

Now that more is known about the cause of the beach erosion and what can be done to address it, Perera says the next step now is to meet with all stakeholders to work together to put in place a plan of action … before it’s too late.

Dr. Colin Young
“Obviously Monkey River was not spared Hurricane Iris and those storms and so that also exacerbates the problem and speeds up the erosion. But that just goes to show that if the situation is this bad already and there is another natural disaster, another hurricane like the category of Iris, then you’d lose even more beach and where we are standing right here may become threatened quite soon.”

Reporting for News Five, Jacqueline Godwin.

Monkey River Village recently formed its own tour guide association and fishing cooperative. There is a banana support programme administered by the Ministry of National Development that is looking at the social development of the community along with plans for the provision of twenty-four hour electricity and water.