Tunisia's Sandy Beaches Eaten away by Coastal Erosion

In Tunisia's seaside town of Hammamet, bulldozers diligently shovel sand from a nearby desert onto a popular beach in an attempt to stop it from disappearing due to erosion.
"This beach is the postcard image of Hammamet," said environmentalist Chiheb Ben Fredj peering nostalgically at the town's iconic Yasmine beach.
"It has been seared in our minds since our childhood," he added, as laborers worked to restore the central Tunisian waterfront to its former sandy glory, reported Agence France Presse.
Like many other coastal areas in North Africa, severe erosion has led to many of Hammamet's sandy beaches vanishing in recent years, taking a toll on the holiday hotspot about 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of the capital Tunis.
Coastlines across the world are in a constant natural flux, with the seas claiming and depositing sediment.
But human activity, including coastal property development and offshore sand mining, significantly accelerates beach erosion.
Among other impacts, construction and coastal defenses in one area can stop sediment from traveling along a coastline, leaving existing beaches deprived of new material.
Studies have also shown the impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures and sea levels, exacerbate the phenomenon.
Tourism draw
In the Mediterranean, where the British National Oceanography Centre says sea levels have risen at a higher rate over the past 20 years than the entirety of the 20th century, shorelines are changing rapidly.
The sea is also warming 20 percent faster than the rest of the world, according to the United Nations.
Tunisia's coastline has been a major asset for the Mediterranean country with a struggling economy, as it aims to host some 10 million tourists this year.
Tourism accounts for up to 14 percent of the country's GDP, providing tens of thousands of jobs in a country where unemployment tops 16 percent and 40 percent among young people.
Tunisia has already lost more than 90 kilometers of beaches to erosion, according to official figures from last year.
Of the country's 570 kilometers of sandy beaches suitable for swimming, 190 kilometers are at imminent risk of disappearing, according to Tunisian reports.
A majority of the beaches most affected by erosion are located near cities.
Tunisia's environmental groups, as well as the government's Coastal Protection and Development Agency (APAL), blame the rapid erosion mostly on human activity and construction on the coast, which they say is further aggravated by climate change.
"Construction projects have not been designed to respect coastal dynamics," an APAL official told AFP.
'Not sustainable'
To save the Hammamet beach, one of Tunisia's worst-affected according to the World Bank, authorities last month began trucking in around 750 lorry loads filled with sand from the inland desert province of Kairouan, about 110 kilometers away.
APAL, which operates under the environment ministry, was in a race against time to refill the beach before the peak of tourist season.
But while the rebuilding of beaches, known as beach nourishment, may be a quick fix, "it's not a sustainable solution", said Ben Fredj.
"This sand may not last long," added the secretary general of the Environmental Education Association.
"It can be swallowed in a few days in the event of a storm", he said, as was the case in the summer of 2023.
The process can also prove expensive.
Coastal authorities estimated the cost of restoring sand to three beaches in Hammamet, Monastir and Sfax at 3.9 million Tunisian dinars ($1.25 million).
But for locals, restoring their priceless seafront is worth the money.
The Yasmine beach "is a showcase for Hammamet," said Narjess Bouasker, who runs the town's Menara hotel and leads the regional hotel federation.
"We must take back our beach that the sea has swallowed," she said, calling for a balance between safeguarding the landscape, cherished by locals and foreign visitors alike, and fighting coastal erosion.
"For us, the priority is not to touch the beauty of the city," she said.
Bouasker said she has seen increasing awareness among authorities, but refilling beaches with sand is still a gamble.
"We don't know how the sea will react", she added.

Around 300 pink flamingo chicks were rescued by volunteers in eastern Algeria after the salt lake where they hatched dried up following years of high temperatures and drought.

Thousands of flamingos migrate each year to nest in Lake Tinsilt, located around 450 kilometers (about 280 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers, Agence France Presse reported.

It is one of the largest wetlands in the country, with an area of more than 20 square kilometers.

"Barely a month ago there was water here," volunteer Mourad Ajroud told AFP on Friday, pointing to what is now a vast expanse of cracked earth littered with the carcasses of dead birds.

The disappearance of the lake, which locals and Algerian media attribute to high temperatures and a years-long drought, has driven the adult flamingos away.

They left behind their unhatched eggs and defenseless chicks, dozens of which have died from hunger, thirst, poaching and wolf attacks.

A group of volunteers provided their cars and trucks to transfer 283 pink flamingos about 50 kilometers away to Lake Mahidiya, about 50 kilometers away.

The wetland near Ain Mlila remains flush thanks to a steady flow of water from nearby rivers and lakes.

The rescue operation was initiated by local amateur photographer Tarek Kawajlia, who documents the wildlife in his area, and noticed the decrease in the size of the lake and the flight of birds.

The volunteers carry out "morning and evening patrols to follow the chicks until they recover and are able to fly, so that they can return next year to the sabkha (marsh) and life can resume its normal course," Kawajlia told AFP.

Ajroud, 53, said the group was not able to save all the birds.

"We couldn't transport them all," he said sadly, as another volunteer takes an injured bird to a veterinary clinic.

A few hours after the chicks were released at their new habitat, some adult birds joined them.

"The operation was successful and the parents found their little ones in a magnificent scene," Kawajlia said in a comment on one of his photos posted to Facebook.

Lake Tinsilt is one of the around 50 bodies of water in Algeria declared wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar international environment treaty to protect wetlands.

Last year, about a hundred pink flamingos died at Lake Telamine in western Algeria's Oran province due to wastewater pollution, according to environmental activists.

Tunisia's Sandy Beaches Eaten away by Coastal Erosion