Progreso’s Malecón Battles Coastal Erosion Crisis

Progreso, Yucatán — The port of Progreso faces a seemingly endless problem: coastal erosion is now directly impacting the municipality’s beachfront and has begun taking away more than just meters of sand, also affecting tourists, merchants, and service providers.

Despite attempts to recover the area by filling it with dump trucks of sand, the efforts have proven insufficient. The force of the sea continues to carry away the material, so recently they opted to place large sand-filled bags at the edge of the beach as an emergency measure to halt the water’s advance and reduce the impact on tourism activity.

On the morning of December 26, a group of workers from a private construction company was carrying out these tasks. According to the employees, the placement of the bags could begin to show results in approximately five months, a period in which the sand would stop shifting and remain within the protected area.

They indicated that this technique has already been used in other areas of the Yucatán coast, such as in Uaymitún, where similar bags have been placed for several years to contain erosion.

Residents pointed out that the problem has worsened since October 2024, following the close passage of Hurricane Milton near the Yucatán Peninsula, a phenomenon that reportedly caused changes in marine currents and accelerated sand loss along the coast.

In Chicxulub Puerto, a municipality of Progreso, the situation is even more critical. The beach located near the pier has practically disappeared, and today only large, sharp stones remain, placed at one time as a supposed containment measure. However, far from solving the problem, these rocks now represent a constant risk for bathers.

In the municipal seat, attempts to preserve the malecón’s beaches have failed to stop the deterioration. The strip of sand continues to shrink from the area where the port’s letters are located, and the sea’s advance is increasingly heading toward the Progreso pier.

National tourists lamented the deterioration of the malecón. Andrés Zamudio, a visitor originally from Cancún, Quintana Roo, noted that on his last visit the beach even had vegetation, and recalled that a decade ago the Progreso malecón offered a completely different image than the current one.