The beaches of Arafo, Candelaria and Güímar remain almost entirely closed. Only that of the village of El Socorro and most of El Cabezo, both in the Güimarero municipality, continue to be used for bathing. The municipal authorities yesterday kept the red flag in the rest of the coast of the Valley of Güímar waiting to know today the results of the analyzes carried out on the water samples collected two days ago.
The closure of the beaches was caused by the progressive presence of hydrocarbon remains on the coast of this area of the Southwest region. Last Tuesday was when the first users of El Cabezo beach, in El Puertito de Güímar, warned of the presence of piche in the environment. The City Council closed the strip called El Cabezo A, which is popularly called the “L” beach. After less than an hour, the measure was applied to the entire most important bathing area of the municipality.
In Candelaria, that afternoon the beaches of Punta Larga and Las Caletillas were closed, for the same reason. In this case, the decision to prohibit swimming on the entire coastline of Villa Mariana was applied during the morning of Wednesday and remains until today, at least. Since the situation became known, the municipal government proceeded to formulate its notification to bathers and the preventive closure of the beaches by raising the red flag. Likewise, it carried out the taking of samples by the Department of Health and their referral to the Sanitary Inspection Service and Laboratory of the Government of the Canary Islands for analysis. Results are expected today.
The mayor of Arafo, Juan Ramón Martín, decreed the closure of the only beach that the municipality has: Playa de Lima. He did it at noon on Wednesday and also remains waiting to know the extent of the hydrocarbon contamination of this bathing area that is located on the coast of the Valle de Güímar Industrial Park, next to Playa de La Viuda, in the municipality of Candelaria.
It should be remembered that Maritime Captaincy of Santa Cruz de Tenerife investigates the origin of the hydrocarbon spill that since Tuesday affects part of the Anaga coastline, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the coast of the Güímar Valley. The Central Government Delegation in the Islands went on to state that the experts do not believe that the fuel spill is serious, based on the monitoring carried out on the spot. Satellites monitoring the leaks did not detect the spill the same day it made landfall, Tuesday morning. That day, the capital closed the Roque de las Bodegas beach, in Anaga, but reopened it the next day when conditions had improved. The same thing that happened yesterday in most of the Güimarera beach of El Cabezo. The mayor, Gustavo Pérez, hopes that the area that remains closed will remain in use today.
