British vacationers are warned to keep away from 48 ‘black flag’ Spanish seashores
- Environmental group Ecologists in Action named and shamed worst offenders
British holidaymakers have been warned about visiting nearly 50 ‘black flag’ beaches in Spain.
Spanish environmental campaign group Ecologists in Action has named and shamed the worst offenders in a report highlighting problems including chemical pollution, marine waste, over-development and sewage discharges.
Talamanca Beach in Ibiza has been put on the list after being singled out over the catastrophic damage done to underwater plants by boats anchoring illegally off the coast and a treatment plant pumping salty wastewater into the sea.
El Amerador Beach in El Campello, just north of Alicante, has been given one of Ecologists in Action’s 48 black flags because of disease-causing fecal pollution blamed on a nearby poorly-maintained pumping station.
The organisation highlights two recent instances of human waste entering the sea at the Costa Blanca beach, one in March and one in April.
Talamanca Beach (pictured) in Ibiza has been put on the list after being singled out over the catastrophic damage done to underwater plants by boats anchoring illegally off the coast and a treatment plant pumping salty wastewater into the sea
El Amerador Beach in El Campello (pictured) just north of Alicante has been given one of Ecologists in Action’s 48 black flags because of disease-causing fecal pollution blamed on a nearby poorly-maintained pumping station
The Canary Islands, where thousands of locals took to the streets in April in an anti-mass tourism protest to highlight problems including ocean pollution, also get a drubbing in the report.
A spokesman for Ecologists in Action, a grassroots confederation of 300 ecological groups, said: ‘One of the biggest problems we are facing is the ‘touristification’ and urbanisation of our coast and this is a problem that especially affects the Canary Islands.’
Claiming its political leaders were prioritising business interests in a ‘suicidal race’ and boasting about record tourism when its local population were suffering record poverty and unemployment, the organisation said: ‘The ecological footprint of the Canary Islands corresponds to that of a territory 27 times larger.
‘In other words we need a territory 27 times larger to satisfy all the demands of the economic model and development of the archipelago.’
In a horror description of the situation in the most popular of the eight islands with British holidaymakers, it claimed overnight: ‘In Tenerife 57 million litres of wastewater are discharged directly into the sea every day, equivalent to 17 Olympics swimming pools of polluted water.
‘The problem extends to all eight Canary Islands. Underwater outlets are discharging 24/7 365 days a year in all the islands’ archipelago.
‘More than 90 per cent of the wastewater from urban, industrial and agricultural centres reaches the sea practically without treatment.’
In a horror description of the situation in the most popular of the eight islands with British holidaymakers, it claimed overnight: ‘In Tenerife 57 million litres of wastewater are discharged directly into the sea every day, equivalent to 17 Olympics swimming pools of polluted water.’ Pictured: La Tejita beach in Tenerife
The popular Playa Blanca beach in Lanzarote (pictured) gets one of the group’s black flags this year because of a sewage spill caused by a pumping station fault which led to the beach’s temporary closure in May
The popular Playa Blanca beach in Lanzarote gets one of the group’s black flags this year because of a sewage spill caused by a pumping station fault which led to the beach’s temporary closure in May.
Ecologists in Action warned today last month’s drama was not the first and described it as ‘common’, saying pumping treatment managers had blamed the problem on people flushing wet wipes and nappies down the loo instead of putting them in the bin.
The 48 black flags awarded to the country’s beaches in its latest report are split up into two per province.
Pellets identified as dangerous to marine and human life have been flagged up as a problem on the Costa Dorada in Tarragona, which includes resorts like Salou.
Further north on the Costa Brava private boats have been blamed for damaging marine biodiversity.
