My friend Takao and his wife Emi went on a Caribbean cruise in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. As part of the tour, they visited Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. The giant cruise ship took an eastward course early in the morning and sailed slowly towards the vast pier, facing the sunrise, with Paradise Island (known for its huge resort Atlantis) on the left and Junkanoo Beach on the right. They still vividly remember its beautiful scenery. But they didn’t realize at that time that they missed an important point from the perspective of sustainable development.
Before I explain what they missed, I need to explain what an important area this port of Nassau is for the Bahamas and generally how heavily reliant the economy of the Bahamas is on tourism. The Nassau Cruise Port, where my friends arrived, is one of the largest ports in the country, usually attracting about 3.5 million tourists a year (if not for the effects of COVID-19). Tourism accounts for approximately 50% of the country’s GDP. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bahamas welcomed a record 7.25 million tourists. Any significant disruption to the industry – a natural disaster or global event – has wide-ranging socioeconomic impacts on the country. For example, a 2020 report by the IDB and the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) found that the Bahamas’ tourism industry bore most of the losses when the category five Hurricane Dorian destroyed parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama in 2019. It is estimated that the industry suffered $7 billion in losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One billion dollars of those losses were attributed directly to the cessation of cruise lines calling on Bahamian ports.
The Arawak Port, located in the same area (2km west of the cruise port), is the country’s largest logistics hub. About halfway between the two ports (on its southern coast) is the world-famous tourist hub: Junkanoo Beach. Paradise Island is on the other side of the Beach (about 1 km north), including an environmental conservation site.
As you can see, this relatively small area is unique in that it combines a Bahamian tourist center, a logistics center, a place to live, and a nature conservation area.
One of the critical infrastructures that protect this vital area from storm surges and other climate events is the Eastern Breakwater, given its location at the entrance of the harbor, Takao and Emi missed it. This breakwater was built in the 1960s but semi-collapsed later because of a storm in November 1991. This partially damaged structure has been in use ever since without being repaired (Note: This 1991 storm was the model for “The Perfect Storm” movie by Wolfgang Petersen in 2000.)
Why did the Eastern Breakwater partially collapse? This 1991 climate event was not a “hurricane” but (meteorologically speaking) a storm. The storm generated an average wave height of 4.3m, which was much smaller than the 8.2m estimated for a once-every-50-years hurricane (Baird, 2008). Then why did it happen? According to the same report by Baird (2008), it was due to a combination of factors, including the fact that the wave period (the time it takes between successive wave crests to pass a specific point) was over 16 seconds, much longer than that of a typical hurricane (in other words, the destructive force was extremely high).
In any case, rebuilding the Eastern Breakwater is estimated to cost several million US dollars. However, the additional socioeconomic impact of not rebuilding it is even more severe considering the recent escalating effects of climate change. As noted in the Arawak Port Development 2020 Annual Report (APD, 2020), the Nassau Container Port’s ability to service ships has already begun to decline due to the impact of the broken breakwater. Cruise ship operations have also been adversely affected.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is supporting the project “Program for Climate Resilient Coastal Zone Management and Infrastructure Development” in the country through the Ministry of Public Works and Utilities (MOPU) to address these issues. The project’s objective is to increase the resilience of the coastal zone to climate risks by strengthening the country’s Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) capacity. This project is not only endeavoring to rebuild the Eastern Breakwater in the Nassau Harbor area but also to rehabilitate coastal protection infrastructure at Junkanoo Beach in the same area. Outside of Nassau, the project will also enhance coastal zone management capacities in other Family Islands of Grand Bahama, Long Island, and Andros Island in the Bahamas’ archipelago.
More importantly, the project’s inputs not only include the development of hard infrastructure but also include the creation of natural infrastructure using, mainly, mangroves. The project also includes infrastructure’s science-based engineering design to optimize it objectively and to strengthen the organization and governance to make this happen.
Breakwaters are perhaps the least visually remarkable coastal protection infrastructures, as evidenced by the fact that my friends overlooked them. However, they are critical infrastructure for reducing the risks of climate events, minimizing the disruption of tourism, and ensuring stable socioeconomic development in the country. As part of its Country Strategy for the Bahamas, the IDB has mainstreamed climate-resilience and disaster risk management throughout all priority areas. This includes incorporation of science-based, climate-resilient measures to ensure the sustainability of infrastructure within the framework of integrated coastal zone management.
As climate change poses increasing risks to socioeconomic activities, the IDB is contributing to the sustainable development of its member countries by strengthening ICZM, including resilient investments such as this “low-profile” but VERY important Breakwater.
Photo credits: Shutterstock
Download our publications here:
Impact of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas: A View from the Sky
Assessment of the Effects and Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic in The Bahamas
More blogs by this author:
Measuring vulnerabilities to hazardous events
¿Cómo diseñar una buena gobernanza para la reducción del riesgo de desastres?
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