When the breakwater is finally built on Playa Granada, Playa de Poniente and Playa Cable will lose sand and Playa Granada will recover it, but it will take a while.

The idea is to put things back as they were, 40 years ago, before Rules Reservoir was built, which stopped new sand being brought by the river down to the beaches. However, the dam is not the only ‘guilty party’ behind the shoreline changes because the urbanizaciones built in the 70s and 80, the disappearance of dunes and the port extension all altered the shoreline.

The shoreline between the river mouth of Río Guadalfeo and the port will see changes thanks to the presence of the breakwater-cum-groyne. In fact, compared with images of the shoreline in 1957, Playa Granada has lost 137 sq/metres of sand whilst Playa de Poniente has widened to 115 metres. The end result is that it is a 3-day camel trek and a packed lunch to reach the sea, crossing Playa de Poniente.

Now the breakwater isn’t going to do all the shifting of sand from one side to the other because sand will be removed from Playa de Poniente and lorried around to Playa Granada leaving the former closer to how it was in 1981, before the construction of the dam. The amount of sand that will be moved is 711,362 sq/m. Most of it will come from Playa de Poniente and Playa El Cable, but some will come from the Rambla de Mólvizar, which will be classified and washed to prevent environmental damage to the seabed… supposedly.

Nevertheless, the Ministry considers that each year the wave action and currents will shift 45,000 cubic metres.

The breakwater, which will be situated on the Punta del Santo, will extend 247 metres with a widened end, leaving it looking like a comma or better said, a single quotation mark, the construction of which will leave areas of beach cordoned off during Semana Santa and the summer.

(News/Noticias: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)