Visitors sunbathe on embankment as erosion ravages central Vietnam beach

Le Cong Sy, Chairman of the People's Committee of Cua Dai Ward, said: "The beach has slipped about 10 meters from the last restoration back in March 2017." 

Sands used to cover this dike, but waves have been washing away the sandy embankment.

Tourists climb down the embankment to head to the beach.

Authorities are repairing the embankment with reinforced concrete. "There are some coastal areas where there is a great risk of landslides if there are storms," said Sy. Here, the erosion continues even when there were not many storms hitting the area.

Sy has warned tourists not to swim too far from the shore.

During the peak season, which lasts from May to August, tourists to Cua Dai are mainly Vietnamese, and for the rest of the year, visitors mainly come for Europe.

Due to the erosion, many people have to sunbathe near dike, instead of on the long, wide beach as they could do earlier.

Local authorities have spent VND28 billion ($1.22 million) out of the VND70 billion (more than $3.04 million) budget allocated for beach restoration. Efforts thus far have included setting up nine meters high iron pilings along the coast, dumping sand in the area, and creating embankments made out of heavy duty bags (imported from Holland) stacked together.

Some tourists sit on top of the bags piled up to protect the coconut palms along the shore.

A foreign tourist relaxes at a resort on Cua Dai Beach.

In 2015, the famous travel site TripAdvisor ranked the Cua Dai the 18^th top beach in Asia.

Serious erosion has been noticed at the Cua Dai Beach since October 2014. Waves have washed over the entire concrete barrier, which is five meters high and 70 meters long, and encroached an additional 160 meters inland. The waves have washed away many seaside resorts, and severly damaged the beach that is more than three kilometers long, resulting in fewer visitors.