I regularly walk along our coastline. I grew up there partly. Today Mariakerke and some other cities made the news again. The subject is the “Cliffs in Mariakerke and Bredene”. Whoever goes to the interior hardly knows the phenomenon, but … and yet we must give it the necessary attention. Why? In addition to climate change, this not only has an impact on our health but primarily on our well-being. Unconsciously or consciously, this phenomenon has an impact on how we experience or see our environment change.

The first cliffs on our beaches have been formed. Some are slightly smaller than a meter, but if you look closely you will notice that the number of cubic sand that has disappeared again overnight is quite impressive. With every heavy storm, sand blows and washes away. It used to come during the spring times, at earlier fixed periods on the time calendar. Now you see this phenomenon much more.

If you look closely you will see that sand has disappeared due to the cliff formation, but many beaches are flattened again and show a radical color difference.

Mayors on the coast are rightly concerned and call on the Flemish government to offer more structural solutions than the annual sand deposits, which cost a lot of tax money.

If this phenomenon gets worse, and let’s be honest Flanders knows the problem but has a huge catch-up movement in terms of implementation. What does this have to do with well-being. If our environment changes radically, due to the impact of the sea, then our well-being changes unconsciously and then consciously and this will have an impact on our social and personal well-being. How? Time to advise policymakers on what is necessary if they want to continue to guarantee the well-being of residents and their coast. Finally, we only have 64 kilometers of coastline.