Six ‘black flags’ handed out to beaches and coastal areas suffering from pollution and ‘mismanagement’ in eastern Spain

THE Ecologists in Action group has dished out six flags to the Valencian Community in its annual ‘Black Flag’ awards to beaches suffering pollution caused by wastewater discharges and environmental mismanagement.

Two flags each have been given to the region’s three provinces.

In Valencia, there is an award to the pollution caused in the coastal area of the Natura 2000 Network.

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The group also slams the mismanagement of ‘wrong coastal solutions’, with the massive filling of sand in the Albufera Natural Park.

Ecologists in Action says that ‘the policy of managing the setbacks of the beaches on the coast Valencia province is totally ineffective and unsustainable.’

“It devours the natural resources of other coastal and marine spaces, wastes public money that comes out of the pockets of citizens and is carried out with a short-term vision that will never solve the problem, but it will perpetuate it over time, since it does not act on the main causes that originate it,” it commented.

In Alicante province, it refers to pollution by the Barranco and Amerador beach, El Campello- areas that have been affected twice by fecal discharges in March and April.

The problem has come from a pumping station that is located in the bed of the ravine to the beach.

A black flag has also been given to the ‘poor management’ of the Bay of Alicante, which includes four beaches at Cap l’horta, Albufera, Postiguet and Saint Gabriel.

In Castellon province, the flags are awarded to the coastal section of the Grao-Camino Serratella in Borriana, due to pollution.

The environmentalists say it is a coastal section with ‘recurrent sewage leaks due to the collapse of the evacuation network when it rains’.

Also mentioned is L’Estany-Capicorb beach for being classified as a dog beach in what is the only protected wetland in the municipality of Alcalade Xivert-Alcossebre.