Our coastline is being worn away by waves and development, with erosion seen in over one thousand kilometres of land, including tourist beaches.

Director-general of Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), Keizrul Abdullah, said 30 percent of Malaysia's 4,800-kilometre coastline was experiencing erosion.

"Every state in Malaysia has areas which are undergoing erosion," Keizrul told AFP.

Beaches said to be in critical condition, where erosion is threatening property, include those in Perlis, Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu and Perak.

Malacca and Selangor, where popular tourist destinations are located, are also seeing erosion.

While most of the wear is from sea currents, some 250 kilometres of coastline is deteriorating where increasing development is combining with natural attrition to wear down beaches, he said.

"These places where we are seeing some serious erosion is a result of our activities, which make the natural erosion process a little worse," said Keizrul.

Human settlements

Development includes human settlements, land reclamation works, and the construction of resorts, and structures such as jetties and ports.

"Every state has got jetties. Some of the states have got major ports and some have got fishing ports, so the erosion is experienced in all the states of Malaysia," he said.

A report in the New Straits Times on Monday estimated that thousands of lives and millions of ringgit in property were under threat from erosion in at least 93 areas of the country.

Quoting unnamed authorities, the newspaper said 33 of the areas were seeing the losses of up to 40 metres of land annually.