Spanish beaches tarnished as 48 sites hit by pollution alert

It is worrying news about Spanish beaches circulated in the media just before the start. Many of them do not meet standards, with sewage and various pollutants, including chemical waste, flowing into the water at coastal resorts. Environmentalists have published a list of places with black flags.

Spanish resorts, both on the mainland and on the islands, have reason for concern. Experts are sounding the alarm about which places have serious environmental issues.

Ecologists in Action has been presenting a report every year since 2005, highlighting the most significant cases of pollution and poor environmental management on Spain's coast.

This year, 48 black flags were awarded. Particular focus was placed on the social and environmental problems caused by tourism and coastal urbanisation, especially in the Canary Islands, which have been in the spotlight recently due to mass protests by residents against mass tourism.

- One of the biggest issues is "tourism" and urbanisation of our coastline. This particularly affects the Canary Islands - said a spokesperson for "Ecologists in Action."

Members of the initiative accuse the authorities of boasting about tourism records while the local population suffers from unemployment. It was pointed out that the ecological footprint left by the Canary Islands corresponds to that of a territory 27 times larger.

"In Tenerife, 68,000 cubic metres of sewage are discharged directly into the sea daily, equivalent to 17 Olympic-sized swimming pools of polluted water," environmentalists state in the report. "Over 90 per cent of sewage from urban, industrial, and agricultural centres enters the sea almost untreated."

However, the list includes beaches in the Canary Islands, the Balearics, and the mainland.

For example, El Amerador Beach in El Campello, north of Alicante, received one of the 48 black flags due to a nearby treatment plant that pumps part of the sewage straight into the sea.

Talamanca Beach in Ibiza was included in the list by environmentalists due to the catastrophic damage caused to underwater vegetation by boats illegally anchoring offshore.

The full list of beaches can be found on www.ecologistasenaccion.org.