Fragile in the face of waves
Mr. Dinh Ngoc Vinh, owner of Soul Kitchen restaurant (Hoi An Tay ward), stood silently watching the fierce waves crashing against the shore, his eyes filled with worry. At his feet, hundreds of broken sandbags lay haphazardly, entangled in crooked bamboo stakes. Nearly 16 years since renting the land along An Bang beach to open his restaurant, Mr. Vinh had never seen the coastline eroded so severely as this year.
Although last month he spent tens of millions of dong buying bamboo stakes and materials to hire workers to drive piles and reinforce the coastline below the restaurant, after only a few days of rain and storms, especially after typhoon number 13, everything crumbled. Next to Soul Kitchen, the coastline of Sao Bien and Mr. Ca restaurants is also devastated, with signs of erosion in the form of jagged, precarious earthen walls that look like they could collapse at any moment.
Mr. Dinh Ngoc Vinh stated that he won the auction to lease the 650m2 plot of land where the Soul Kitchen restaurant is located in April 2024 for nearly 1.7 billion VND per year, but even so, it only operates for about 4-6 months each year.
Since the end of September, with the arrival of storms and heavy rain, the restaurant has either closed or is operating at a reduced capacity. "Now, all our assets and money have been invested in the restaurant, not to mention the livelihoods of over a dozen employees who depend on it, so we have to hold on; we can't give up," Mr. Vinh said.
Although Typhoon 13 did not directly hit Da Nang , it still caused significant damage, especially to businesses along the coast of Hoi An. At Deckhouse restaurant, the waves destroyed the steps leading down to the beach. Even the adjacent Shore Club restaurant experienced erosion that reached the swimming pool. Mr. Le Ngoc Thuan, owner of Deckhouse and Shore Club (Hoi An West), shared that his business has never faced such insecurity and difficulties as it does now.
Similar to the Soul Kitchen restaurant, after renting two restaurants for over 10 years at a relatively low price, in April 2025, Mr. Thuan continued to rent them again, but the price had increased many times over. Specifically, Mr. Thuan has to pay approximately 4.4 billion VND per year to rent the two plots of land (each plot measuring 800m2).
"High rental costs, coupled with landslides, have made things extremely difficult for businesses. We desperately need the support and assistance of the government to overcome these challenges and stabilize our operations as soon as possible," Mr. Thuan expressed.
Hoi An Tay ward has 3.5km of coastline, a concentration of hotels and restaurants serving tourists . From mid-October until now, after two storms, almost the entire coastline has been eroded. The consequences not only threaten architectural structures, houses, and property of businesses and residents, but also affect business activities.
Emergency coastal protection
For nearly 15 years, coastal erosion in Hoi An has been a persistent problem every time the rainy season arrives. Many solutions to protect the coastline have been implemented, such as driving Larsen piles, constructing hard concrete embankments, creating beaches, and building soft breakwaters from afar using geotextile bags... however, the effectiveness has not been as expected.
According to a representative of the Boutique Hotel (Thanh My neighborhood, Hoi An Tay ward), a decisive intervention from relevant departments and scientific researchers is needed to identify the root cause and propose comprehensive solutions to the erosion problem in Hoi An. In 2024, the Boutique Hotel invested 2 billion VND in building a concrete seawall to protect the shoreline from waves, but after a short period of storms, the seawall was destroyed by waves, and seawater encroached more than 10 meters into the hotel grounds, knocking down the bar.
In fact, from 2020 to the present, about 5 large-scale seawall projects invested by the State, along with dozens of smaller projects implemented by businesses, have been launched, but most have been powerless against the fierce waves.
Notable projects include the "Emergency Erosion Control and Coastal Protection Project in Hoi An Combined with Cua Dai Dredging," with a total investment of 40 billion VND, implemented in 2020; the "Emergency Erosion Control Project at Cua Dai Beach," with a total investment of 300 billion VND, commenced in July 2021 and completed in August 2022; and the "Emergency Erosion Control Embankment Project at Cua Dai Beach" section from Cam An Ward People's Committee to An Bang area, with a budget of 210 billion VND, commenced in summer 2022. The projects include the “Emergency Coastal Erosion Control Project at Cua Dai,” which involves dredging the Cua Dai area to obtain sand for beach reclamation, commenced in November 2023 and completed in September 2024. Most recently, the “Coastal Erosion Control and Sustainable Protection Project at Hoi An,” with a total investment of 42 million euros from ODA loans and grants, commenced in March 2025 and will last for two years, is underway.
It is evident that, despite investments totaling trillions of dong, coastal erosion in Hoi An has yet to be completely resolved. Even more worrying is the fact that the erosion is tending to shift northward at a rapid pace.
While about five years ago erosion only occurred on the Cua Dai beach and in the Thanh My neighborhood, it is now present in Tan Thanh and An Bang, and it is predicted that in the not-too-distant future it could threaten Ha My beach if comprehensive solutions are not implemented promptly.
Mr. Bui Van Dung, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoi An Tay Ward, acknowledged that all reinforcement and embankment measures implemented during the recent storms were only temporary solutions to minimize erosion. He stated that, in the long term, a comprehensive project with significant investment and thorough scientific and technical research is needed to protect the Hoi An coastline while preserving the beautiful sandy beaches for tourism development.
Source: https://baodanang.vn/phap-phong-theo-con-song-du-3309642.html
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