Construction at the Celina’s Atlantic Resort at the Kitty seawall has come to a complete halt and no plan has been proposed to have the construction approved and continued.
After oral and written warnings were issued to the owner of the Celina’s Atlantic Resort to stop all construction that was ongoing, Chief Sea and River Defence Officer Kevin Samad told Stabroek News yesterday that there was a meeting between the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and the proprietor of the resort. He said that they reviewed the lease conditions and came an agreement that all construction would have to be stopped.
Samad said that the only way construction can be approved to continue at the resort is if the owner sends a proposal for the project that complies with the lease. He further said that such actions were not taken by the proprietor as yet.
The Celina’s Atlantic Resort has come under close scrutiny over the years since it was built in an environmentally sensitive area. Numerous questions have been raised pertaining to how the permission was even granted for the construction given the risks it poses to sea defences, mangroves and courida plants.
Malcolm Ali, former Chief Hydraulics Officer and specialist Engineer for Sea Defences, had stated that the resort building violates the Sea Defence Act and permission for its construction should not have been granted.
In a letter to Stabroek News, Ali had stated that that area of sea defence was specifically designed to tackle massive erosion of the foreshore. Where the resort is located, there was the grouted boulder slope, below which has built up silt. The resort is built on the silt which can spontaneously erode, causing the building to collapse and damaging the sea wall.
Ali had stated that the Sea Defence Act was amended due to the amount of severe erosion that was happening along the East Coast during the late 1960s. The amendment was intended to prevent construction of buildings and other structures in several areas of the coast landwards from 50 feet to 1000 feet from the centre line of the sea dam. He had stated that while construction wasn’t allowed in certain places, special reasons and exceptions were granted for minor structures, for religious purposes, seaward of the sea dam.
