It happens every year; winter, autumn and spring, beaches all along the Costa Tropical are eaten away by wind and wave action.

Although town halls along the Costa Tropical repeatedly plead for beach defences, such as breakwaters and groynes, the relevant authorities in many cases limit their actions to trucking in replacement sand, which will only be swept away in its turn.

This February has seen Playa Poniente in Motril turned into a lake, Playa Granada in the same township, turned back into a steep shelving, mocking the futile work of lorry fleets to create anything but ephemera beach surfaces.

Along the coast in Almuñécar, Playa Cotobro has been swept back to the seawall, almost, and Marina del Este has seen a wave surge pile over the marina seawalls and smash stonework into rubble.

Every year it is the same story, but the Provincial Office of Costas reacts tardier and tardier, so that summer 2016 saw heavy machinery working on the beaches in July, denying popular beaches to tourists.

When is Costas going to bite the bullet and build solid beach defences instead of sweeping up the mess each summer, irresponsibly spending public funds in futile beach regeneration operations?

(News, Costa Tropical, Granda, Andalucia)