Two prominent environmental organizations have lodged appeals in recent days against plans for a 1.7-kilometer (one-mile) long series of rocky breakwaters standing 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) above the sea surface at a beach in northern Israel.

The nongovernmental organizations say such a substantial structure on the beach at Kiryat Haim in Haifa will obstruct views of the sea, endanger surfers and bathers, and trap polluted water and waste running off from the city into the Mediterranean Sea.

Dubbing the plan an outdated and ineffective solution to the shrinking of the beach and erosion of beach infrastructure, the Zalul marine protection organization, and the legal advocacy NGO Adam Teva V’Din, demand that the National Planning Council’s appeals committee order the cancellation of the current plan, which the National Committee for the Protection of Coastal Environments approved in May.

They want the planners to consider softer, more environmentally sensitive options, such as artificial reefs and sand-filled geotubes, which, they say, were not given due weight during the statutory planning process.

The case highlights issues affecting much of Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Climate change is driving increasingly violent winter storms, as the waves whip and damage coastal infrastructure before dragging the sand on the beaches back out to sea. The replenishment of that sand is then obstructed by marinas and ports that jut out into the sea, preventing the sand’s movement northward.

There is no national policy to address the problem.

“Coastal protections in Israel are always carried out at the last minute and not as part of a regulated policy, which creates constant pressure to implement........

© The Times of Israel