A total of 180 coastal communities are in need of sea walls, says Minister for Waterways and Environment Dr Mahendra Reddy.

He told the villagers of Drauniivi in Ra of the magnitude of work the ministry had to carry out to protect communities near waterways.

“We have 180 coastal communities that need to be protected,” he said.

“The list of the number of places where we have to build sea walls keeps growing.

“These villages were happy before, but now they are worried because someday they can be washed away.

“Our riverbanks are being washed away. Erosion is a real issue.”

Dr Reddy attributed the rise in the erosion of waterways to climate change.

“More will come because now the existing discharge capacity of waterways, which was OK 40 years ago, is not enough now for two reasons.

“One, the volume of rain has substantially gone up. Three times the amount of rain we used to have annually was experienced in January this year, so the volume of rain goes up and when it goes up the amount of water that comes down will not be able to be handled by the current waterways.

“Secondly, the activities that are happening upstream agriculture, logging is causing siltation of the waterways and that is reducing the discharge capacity of the waterway.

“Both of these are contributing to the spillover of water, so it’s affecting the infrastructure beside the waterway.

“The roads, farms, the villages, the schools and many others are affected.”