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Language: en

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It is a cold and bleak day here.

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There are lots of towns and villages
around the world that once existed,

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but have been lost to the sea
or under floodwaters.

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But here, on the south-east coast of Britain,

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there's a village that's still around
but won't be for too long.

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Up behind those cliffs is Covehithe.

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It's a picturesque little village.

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There's the ruins of a church
more than 600 years old,

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with a more recent church built inside.

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And by more recent, I mean the little church
is only 400 years old.

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There's farmland, a few houses,
a couple of dozen residents.

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This has been a settlement for least
a thousand years, possibly more.

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And it'll be gone by the end of the century.

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You can see on old maps just how much land
has already been lost to the sea.

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The cliffs here get eroded a little bit
with every high tide,

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steadily being pushed
back and back and back.

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There are warning signs to stop
people from walking on top,

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because the ground near the edge
will be loose and could fall

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with just a little bit
of pressure from above.

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And this has been happening
for centuries.

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It can't go on forever:
at some point, no-one knows when,

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the process should stabilise
at a new equilibrium.

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But no-one can model that far ahead.

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For the forseeable future, the
local council's management plan

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estimates that the coastline will move inland
by about four or five metres every year.

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There's a lot of margin for error,
but even in the best-case scenario,

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Covehithe is gone in 100 years.

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Worst-case, 30 years.

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It won't actually crumble into the ocean:
to avoid pollution, buildings around here

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are demolished and taken away
when their time comes.

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And presumably someone will have to move the
church's graveyard.

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So why doesn't anyone save Covehithe?

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The landowners here did offer to build
their own coastal defences back in 2011,

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to add breakwaters here as an experiment
to see if the erosion could be slowed,

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but they were turned down by the council.

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This beach, where they'd need to build,
is owned by the government.

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And the government said no because...

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the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few.

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A little way down the coast is Southwold,
home to a thousand people and a lot of tourism.

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And the simulations say that
if Covehithe stops eroding,

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then Southwold would probably start.

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Or at least, they'd need much, much
stronger defences.

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It's not practical to save
every building everywhere:

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this is miles of coastline and
they'd need to defend all of it,

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constantly, into eternity.

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The council's plan is clear:

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"it is not considered sustainable
to attempt to manage the erosion".

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I did ask both the landowners
and the council for a comment,

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but neither got back to me.

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Perhaps because Covehithe
isn't a tourist attraction,

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and I don't think they'd want to be.

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There are no amenities for visitors,
there's no little tea shop by the beach.

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But if you do happen to be somewhere
in the area in the next few years,

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it might be worth stopping by
to see Covehithe... while you can.