What actually happened to the beach at La Sagesse?

Report from a member of Grenada Land Actors Inc.

Intercontinental Hotel construction towering over La Sagesse beach - December 2024

On a visit to the La Sagesse Beach, St. David on February 23rd, I wasn't sure what I was going to witness. Late last year, I had heard that a stone barrier or revetment had been installed directly on the beach, in the vicinity of the Six Senses hotel. Such hard engineering structures are meant to mitigate against coastal erosion, but if they are unplanned and poorly designed then they can permanently damage the beach. Coastal processes will be interrupted and wave energy can be reflected off the structures and affect other parts of the beach, causing erosion in other areas. Such structures also prevent sand from accreting or collecting on the shoreline, so in the long run the beach may be starved of its source of sediment. 

Grenadians have seen the effect that unplanned and badly designed coastal structures can have—the Sauteurs Bay is a stark reminder, as the breakwater installed in that area has contributed to extensive erosion of the middle of the Sauteurs beach. The beach is also littered with archaeological remains which have been exposed by the erosion, including ancient pottery and Kalinago remains and burial grounds. The Government is likely going to have to spend millions in attempting to address the problem. 

At La Sagesse, the community was very outspoken and acted quickly to call out both the developer (Range Developments is the developer of the Six Senses hotel and the nearby Intercontinental Hotel) and the Physical Planning and Development Authority (PDA) for allowing this unplanned activity to be done. It is unclear whether any studies or environmental assessment or even community consultation was done to inform this work.

I had visited the site on December 14th 2024 and it was hard to take in. A large part of the centre of the La Sagesse beach had been built on (see cover photo). The nearshore area was near impassable due to the large boulders that had been placed. Heavy machinery including backhoes were on the beach. Multiple trees including sea-grapes had been cut down and metal rebar, normally used as terrestrial benchmarks, were installed up and down the coast directly in the water. These were left by some careless surveyor and were hazardous to any beachgoer using the area. The extent of these benchmarks makes one wonder how much of the beach they were planning to modify...

I later learnt that the La Sagesse community’s outcry appeared to be heard and that the developer was mandated to remove the boulders by the PDA. This was good news and surely meant that the community was being listened to and that the beach access and integrity of the coastline was being respected. Right?

On my most recent visit to La Sagesse in February 2025, something seemed wrong. From afar, the middle of the beach seemed to produce a weird glare, and seemed almost white. It was a marked difference from the neighbouring areas—as many people know, La Sagesse, like many beaches in Grenada, has a mixed sand colour. This is influenced in part by the La Sagesse River which empties into the Bay and brings with it more land-based sources of sediment.

Walking up to the area, it became clear what the developers had done. The entire middle of the beach had been artificially filled with a foreign-looking white sand. This is a process called beach replenishment.

Imported sand on La Sagesse Beach used for “replenishment”

Beach replenishment is often done as a last resort and many times is not a wise investment as the sand can be easily washed away by storms and coastal processes (https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/05/30/sea-level-rise-makes-florida-beach-renourishment-projects-more-frequent-and-expensive/). When designing beach replenishment projects, the grain size of the sand should be analysed carefully to determine the best match for the existing beach sediment. It does not appear that this was done here. The sand used appears to be imported sand with a completely different consistency. It looked like the type of sand used in construction projects, maybe from Guyana. It appears that Grenadian beaches and sand are no longer good enough for these massive Citizenship By Investment resorts...

The middle of the beach had also been cleared extensively of its coastal vegetation, all the way back to a large drain bordering the Six Senses resort fence, making the beach artificially wide. The white sand had been spread all over this area, on one end connecting to a footpath leading up to the Six Senses resort and the other end directly bordering an open wastewater holding area adjacent to the beach. There was no border around this wastewater pond and it looked like it was easy for any child to fall into the nasty looking brown water. Shockingly, it was clear to see that the wastewater pond was directly connected to a large white pipe which ran underneath the beach, partially camouflaged by the new artificial sand and led straight into the La Sagesse Bay. Do tourists and locals know what they are swimming in thanks to this outfall located directly on the beach?

This is the famous self-proclaimed ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘sustainable’ Six Senses resort...

Open wastewater pond on the beach, with outfall pipe connecting to the seawater in the bay

La Sagesse beach, and in fact the entire bay, is getting destroyed from every side. The Six Senses hotel has already blocked access to the small Lance Pierre Beach and destroyed the end of the La Sagesse beach by building an artificial inlet between the bay and what was once the salt pond. The massive Intercontinental Hotel will take up the remaining community spaces surrounding the Bay, and Range Development’s newest addition, “The La Sagesse Collection”, a series of luxury apartments, is clearing land right up to the river, including in areas with known and documented archaeological sites.

It does not appear that this current administration has done anything to improve the already broken Physical Planning process. The Minister for Planning is nowhere to be seen. No regulations have been passed to improve the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The Intercontinental Hotel, which received final planning approval under the NDC Administration, appears to be going ahead largely unchecked with no changes done to existing EIAs. Laws like the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Act 2019, the 2017 Museum Act, and the Physical Planning and Development Control Act 2016, which are meant to protect the environment and the historical, social, and cultural heritage of our people, are not being enforced and/or are starkly ignored by so-called developers. The Government’s international obligations under the Escazú Agreement—meant to promote more peaceful, just, and prosperous societies by early engagement of the public in decision-making which affects or is likely to affect the environment—are also being ignored. 

In La Sagesse, things are going to get much worse....

Intercontinental Hotel construction towering over La Sagesse beach - February 2025