Sand wars break out on Italian beaches
Two rival Italian seaside resorts battling it out over the disappearing sand on their beaches have taken the row to court.
San Cataldo beach in Puglia, Italy, which is being threatened by severe coastal erosion
Nearly half of the beaches in Italy are under attack from coastal erosion, with the situation particularly bleak in Puglia, the southern region where over 65 per cent of beaches are at risk.
Such has been the decline at San Cataldo beach to creeping Adriatic sea currents, that the town of Lecce arranged to dig up 200,000 cubic metres of sand out at sea in front of neighbour - and rival - Brindisi.
But the EU-funded work caused outrage in Brindisi whose residents baulked at the idea of their sand being used to bolster a neighbour, leaving their already vulnerable coast line at greater risk.
After a series of legal battles the appeal court sided with Brindisi, stopping the digging for sand after ruling it would "create damage equal to, or greater, than the benefits".
Experts believe that with the reinforcement of Italian river banks less sand and silt is now flowing out to sea, where it drifts down the coast to compensate the natural erosion caused by the sea.
He said that beaches near river deltas were especially at risk, with one particularly wide stretch near the Arno river in Tuscany now nearly a mile narrower today than in 1880.
San Cataldo beach at Lecce has already lost a few metres, enough to submerge half the volleyball court, said lifeguard Mauro della Valle.
"Customers are ringing to ask: 'Do you have any sand this year?" he told La Stampa.
Local rivalry is also suspected of fuelling Brindisi's resistance to Lecce's plan. Only 25 miles apart, industrial Brindisi is in a different world to baroque Lecce.
Now plans are to get the sand from Albania.
Krijoni Kontakt