Until the construction of the Port of Los Cristianos, Los Tarajales beach was an area with abundant natural sand deposited by currents, a situation that was altered and that has led to a continuous accumulation in areas such as the pier itself or the beach. from Los Cristianos, from where it is required to be withdrawn periodically mechanically.
To regenerate this environment, en 2008 a project was approved that had the mandatory environmental impact statement, but the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea, the entity that had to provide it with a budget, tender it and execute it, did not carry out such action.
On September 4, 2018, the mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, presented to the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, the beach, the promenade and the environment, as well as the possibilities offered by this area. He did so during an official visit made by the head of the tourist portfolio to this area of the municipality.
The agreement was adopted by the majority of the Plenary, with the sole exception of the councilor of Sí Podemos Arona. From there, the processing of the regeneration of Los Tarajales is activated with the General Directorate of the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea, a body dependent on the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, “which has shown its willingness.”
An achievement of all
The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, explained yesterday that “regenerating the Los Cristianos bay has to be a priority. Although it is not a competence of the City Council, we do have the firm will to recover this area that has a high natural value, returning the beach to its original state, without affecting the main one of the tourist city. The councilor emphasizes and gives value to the plenary agreement: “It is a great achievement that all the groups take a step forward in the modernization of this area of Los Cristianos.”
For his part, the spokesman for the government group and councilor for the area of Environment, Leopoldo Díaz Oda, underlined that «it is essential that this process be initiated hand in hand with the different political groups, in the same way that it is key that both the neighbors and the social and economic agents of Los Cristianos participate in it to achieve a project that is the one that we all want and that elicits a broad majority support ».
Some history
On September 19, 2009, the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs announced that, through the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea, it would invest 26,487,084 euros in the environmental recovery of the beach and the reform of the Los Tarajales promenade. Among the planned actions was to remodel the 850-meter-long promenade. For this, it would include paving, urban furniture, gardening and other elements for public use; recover the soil necessary to create a space open to the sea; the environmental recovery of the 650-meter-long beach, the construction of dikes and the provision of sand. To this must be added the increase in the reception capacity of a coastal cove to, as a whole, recover the beach of Los Tarajales that more than 40 years ago had sand, facilitating the stay and bathing of many users.
The project would gain a public space with continuous use for recreational and leisure activities in all seasons of the year, configuring a true social place for leisure and health. All this in a context in which those environmental measures (preventive, corrective, etc.) that make the action environmentally compatible would be applied.
On April 12, 2013, the Environmental Impact Statement was approved, a resolution of the Secretary of State for the Environment whose validity expired on December 12, 2019. Therefore, the project was no longer valid.
