Tourism investors at Mawella between the devil and the deep blue sea

Tourism investors are in a quandary as to what would happen to their beach properties as two State agencies have locked horns for and against building two 60 m breakwaters at the Mawella Bay. 

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has categorically pointed out recently to the Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department (CCD) that their ‘no objection’ tag to construction in the Mawella Bay was on the basis that there was no impact to tourism.

The CCD last year, under instructions from the Fisheries Ministry, had constructed an anchorage at Mawella Bay and now want to proceed with two breakwaters which they say is necessary to prevent erosion. 

High-end boutique hotel investors and villa owners in the bay area have a counter to this decision, stating that this ad hoc coastal construction will create severe erosion on the beach and Mawella Bay will suffer the same disastrous consequences of Unawatuna. They point to consultations they have made with coastal scientists and say that these envisaged breakwaters will cause more damage than good.

At a meeting held last week with tourism stakeholders, the CCD, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Fisheries and Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, the CCD stated that the two breakwaters were designed purely to address erosion elsewhere in the bay resulting from the building of the anchorage. 

The tourism stakeholders from Mawella disputed this, stating that the anchorage was protected by the headland and would not cause erosion elsewhere. The SLTDA noted that the concerns of the tourism industry are not related purely to aesthetics but also to the risk of severe erosion in other parts of the bay, resulting from the insertion of the two breakwaters. 

In September, the Ministry of Fisheries informed the Ministry of Tourism through a letter that the construction of the breakwaters would be withheld in response to the concerns of the hoteliers, until a final determination is made. 

Last week’s meeting concluded that the impact of the anchorage should be studied by an expert team of professionals to verify if the breakwaters were needed or not to mitigate any such impact.