The beach on Ada was again covered by waves

As a result of a big storm, a strong south wind and strong currents, the beach on Ada was recently under water again, and huge waves reached only two meters from the first bungalows.

Ćamil Hodžić, director of HTP Ulcinjska Riviera, which manages the nudist settlement on Ada, said that it was critical, but that the situation is better now because sand has been poured on the beach, since the south wind was decreasing.

"The condition on the beach was much better, but strong currents during August carried away significant amounts of sand that had been deposited earlier. A new storm and a strong southerly made the situation critical and the water came only a few meters from the bungalow. The sea calmed down, so we poured sand, but we are still planning for the winter," Hodžić told Vijest.

Erosion processes on the beach, but also on the entire island, are nothing new. They have been going on for more than half a century, but there is still no permanent solution for the territory to be protected and preserved. According to some estimates, more than 1970 thousand hectares of the surface of the Ada beach, that is, the territory of the municipality of Ulcinj and the state of Montenegro, have been lost since 42.

The processes culminated a few years ago - in order to save the tourist season in 2021, the Project of emergency measures for the partial revitalization of the beach on Ada was developed. A naper made of sandbags was designed and built at the western end of the beach.

Before the beginning of the tourist season, about 35.000 m3 of sand was dumped on the shore, so the beach was about 35 meters wide and about 300 meters long. In autumn, according to the recommendations of Italian experts, artificial dunes were built - mounds of sand from the landfill on the coast. The aim of building the dunes was to dampen the effect of waves in the winter and to reduce the intensity of beach erosion.

However, at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, significant erosion of the beach on Ada did occur.

A large flood occurred in the Bojana basin. Due to the extremely reduced flow rate of the right branch of Bojana, the water poured out of the bed and completely flooded the tourist village on Ada. At the same time as the flood, large waves occurred during a prolonged storm. The combination of high waters and the appearance of high waves caused a great erosion of the beach on Ada.

At the beginning of 2023, the dunes were rebuilt, so that before the beginning of the tourist season, the sand from the dunes would be poured into the sea in order to obtain a beach of the desired dimensions. And all this lasted until last week...

Well-known expert in hydrology and coastal processes, Prof. Sava Petković, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Belgrade, in one of the earlier interviews for "Vijesti", said that there is a solution, but that it is not realistic to expect that the expensive works on the revitalization of the beach will be financed by the state because, as he stated, it has not been took any serious steps.

"The question arises whether the beach on Ada can be revitalized by filling in sand, dredged from the bottom of the sea... The results of bathymetric surveys along the threatened section of the beach, in the zone of the tourist resort, clearly indicate the existence of a large underwater sill made of deposited sand. The underwater sill runs parallel to the coast and is about 250-300 meters away from it. The volume of sand in the underwater threshold, on the first thousand meters of the length of the beach, is about 150.000 m3. If you take into account the entire length of Ada, it is clear that there is sand for beach revitalization," said Petković at the time.

He stated that the question arises as to who could finance these works.

"If the relevant state institutions during the past fifty years have not managed to gather funds for the revitalization of the beach on Ada, then it is unrealistic to expect that they will do it in the foreseeable future. Especially since the revitalization project has to be renewed every five to ten years. It is also completely unrealistic to expect that the existing tourist facilities on Ada would be able to bear the cost of beach revitalization. Therefore, the only possibility is that someone outside of Montenegro undertakes the responsibility of revitalizing the beach on the island. How realistic it is in the existing economic and geopolitical circumstances is extremely problematic," he said at the time.

The study of preservation and revitalization of the beach on Ada, he added, was made in 2020.

"Extensive field-research and study works were carried out, on the basis of which three alternative solutions for the revitalization of the beach on Ada were proposed. Due to the high price, these proposed solutions were not at all the subject of analysis by competent institutions in Montenegro," said Petković.