Sandbars hold huge tourism potential

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Sandbars hold huge tourism potential

Tags: Environment, Sandbars, Tourism Posted date: November 9, 2011 | No comment

Nonu trees on Fagatasi sandbar

By Tupuola Terry Tavita

What the sea bringeth, it also taketh away.

The twin cyclones Ofa and Val of the early 1990s may have caused extensive destruction of our coastline, but it also churned up kilometres of sand bars and longshore bars that dot our coastline.

Off Mulinuu, two (of three) of these longshore sandbars have been vegetated with pu’a (hernandia) trees, crawling fue sina (beach pea), a futu tree (Baringtonia), fau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) trees, nonu shrubs and budding mangroves on the sheltered side, off the lagoon.

The sandbars – I’ve always thought – hold huge tourism potential for our country, especially in transforming the outlook of the capital Apia.

For the last five years I’ve been waiting for some sort of development to happen there. But nobody seemed to bother. I pitched the idea to a couple of business people and government CEOs, but after some initial – or rather passing – interest, nothing happened.

Planting more nonu trees on Fagatasi sandbar

Yesterday, I got tired of waiting.

I convinced another lateral thinker upstairs of the idea – and later in the evening – a colleague and I were onboard a Samoa Ports Authority speedboat heading out to the sandbars. Herman – the port master – and his colleague Mavaega – who frequent this area a lot – also say they’ve had an inkling of the commercial potential of the sandbars. But like me, they did not know how to go about it.

Standing on the shrubbed longshore sandbar off the Meteorology Office and looking across to the Apia skyline, a little imagination – I believe – and our foreshore could be transformed into a Bora Bora-type island-scape.

In fact, it could be much more attractive than that.

That sandbar – I will name Fagatasi – is about a varying 20 meters wide and stretches for a good 120 meters across the reef – till you reach, opposite the Electoral Office. It was high tide and its highest point is about 2.5 meters above sea level.

An island strip complimenting impressive Changsha city, China

Among the wooded fau and nonu shrubs, a crab scurries along the coral floor. Mangroves bud in the murky water on the lagoon side, teeming with small fish.

The waves crash about forty meters off – and to our dismay – there are signs that the strong tide is eating away at the sandbars.

The second sandbar – I’ve dubbed Fagalua – is about the length of Fagatasi but is much narrower and with much less vegetation. In the cragged shallow lagoon-shore, there are also mangroves taking root.

Fagatolu is a much smaller – but the highest of the three – diamond-shaped sandbar, opposite the Amanaki Hotel. It faces the Apia waterfront and is quickly eroding due to the strong current entering the harbour.

Scoping Fagalua sandbar

There is a perception that investing in these sandbars would be futile because the next cyclone might wash everything away. But do we then sit around – hold off development – until the next cyclone turns up?

If the sandbars were created by cyclones, will not the next cyclone add to it, pending tide shifts? And what’s wrong with rebuilding it again after the next cyclone?

NONETHELESS

None of us yesterday are oceanographers or coastal engineers, but again – a little imagination – could transform these sandbars into green expansive permanent islands sprawling with coconut trees, lush gardens with onsite tourist accommodation for day visits.

First – as with the experience elsewhere in the world – a manmade breakwater can be constructed offshore by sinking obsolete cars and decommissioned fishing boats where the waves crash. With time, coral polyps will grow on these structures and turn it into an artificial reef. This will slow down the tides and, thus, slow down erosion of the sandbars.

A course way can be built across the shallow lagoon to haul tonnes of big rocks to build a seawall on the sandbar foreshore. The course way can be rolled back – clearing the lagoon – when the project is completed. If not a course way, then perhaps a couple of big launches can do the job.

A couple of big dredges also can be commissioned in the lagoon to dig up tonnes of sand to elevate and expand the sandbars. With the amount of sand there, we could probably dredge up a couple of more islands.

Excavators can shape whatever design we want the islands to look like.

But they will not be artificial islands because they were naturally created by cyclones.

With a deepened lagoon, we could build a second marina there. A marina that could accommodate yachts and super-yachts that will easily zip across from the harbour.

Mulinuu Peninsula is quickly becoming Apia’s hotel strip. The marina will be just offshore.

Because the area is government-owned, such a project will also avoid the traditional landownership constraints that are hampering tourism development projects elsewhere in the country.

And there are dozens of offshore sandbars around the country, the technology and experience we will gain can be replicated elsewhere.

Such a project, we can understand, could easily be dismissed and put in the backburner as government has other priority areas.

But it wouldn’t hurt to commission some of our civil engineers to carry out a preliminary feasibility study.

The islands – and sandbars – would be the ideal quick getaway from the hustle-and-bustle of downtown Apia. A place where local people – and tourists alike – can go picnicking, swimming and scuba diving. Government – or beach operators – can make money ferrying people across and small charges can be levied for renting small onsite cottages overnight. Apart from the marina, other onsite businesses can include restaurants and bars.

The lagoon can be turned into a water sport haven where the rich and not-so-rich can enjoy.

Mangrove shoots taking root in the calm lagoon at Fagatasi

TOURISM

Tourism is such a critical mainstay of our economy that we have to look at fresh ideas outside the proverbial box. Ideas that adds to, and brings diversity to our tourism package.

A project of this type will fit in perfectly with the tourism and conservation development dimension of our climate change mitigation and adaptation programme.

It could be funded through the fast-funds facility we’re pushing under the UN climate change funding scheme.

Also, the Chinese and Japanese are only interested in worth-while large scale, multi-million dollar development projects.

We feel this is a very worthwhile one.