Le Figaro Marseille
The warm sand, the rays of the sun, and the pastis on the terrace with the Mediterranean Sea in your sights.
Every year, thousands of people, tourists and locals, flock in the summer to enjoy the joys of Marseille seaside life, particularly on the large Prado beaches to the south of the city.
A pleasure that could be relegated to a simple memory, according to the Marseille town hall.
And for good reason: the sand is gradually disappearing from these artificial beaches, built from scratch, partly in the 1970s with the remains of the metro work.
“Concretely today, the water level is rising,”
laments Hervé Menchon, deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of the sea.
The 100-year swells are becoming annual.
The salt water begins to tickle the base of the trees in the Borély garden.
Ultimately, if we do nothing, the entire seaside park will be underwater.
They are also attacked by natural and wind wear.
And that represents several hectares.
We are really obliged to act.”
To alleviate the situation, the deputy mayor established a resanding project which was the subject of a public inquiry closed on Tuesday, as revealed by local radio Maritima.
In other words: the town hall requests authorization to replenish the beach with sand each year, before the bathing season, for five years.
According to our colleagues, the total volume of materials planned is estimated at 1500m3.
“Between November and February, there are deposits of posidonia and strong swells,”
notes Hervé Menchon.
Then there is a lull.
In February, we will have the exact profile of the beach to ensure that we resurface it in the best conditions.”
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Time to find another solution
The deputy mayor calls for taking sand from certain areas of the Marseille coast which, according to him, have a surplus of sand depending on the swells, such as in Malmousque.
“I prefer that to quarry sand which has to be loaded in trucks and which is bad for the environment
,” proclaims Hervé Menchon.
But the elected official, a long-time activist at EELV, is aware of putting a bandage there without really solving the problem.
“As an ecologist, if I could not resand, I would not resand,”
he insists.
But it is impossible to do nothing.
The damage from climate change is already there.
We made this decision until 2026, the time to come out with a resilient project for the redevelopment of this space.”