Fishermen need the beach for their traditional method of stringing and bringing in nets from the shore rather than from boats. New resorts would displace them. Photo/Yasmeen Qureshi

The south Asian island of Sri Lanka is in a hurry to overcome its wartime past.

Just two years since the end of a long military confrontation, it plans to bung 17 resorts along one stretch of sandy shoreline.

But with developers pre-occupied with building a better beachfront, there's growing concern among the hundreds of thousands still fishing off it.

The situation has echoes of the conflict only recently ended. Canadian journalist Yasmeen Qureshi is on the beach. 

Listen to her dispatch

Produced with Lily Jamali in Sri Lanka.

Thanks to the CBC's Flavia Missier and Jeevan Pragasam for voicing the English translations in that report.