In total, the organization has distributed 48 black flags throughout Spaintwo to each coastal province and another two to each autonomous city, and for the first time since it prepared its analysis in 2005, this 2022 a beach obtains its black flag for the pollution caused by the sunscreens in sunscreen creams.
The NGO presented this Tuesday in Vigo (Pontevedra) the XVII ‘Black Flags’ report, which analyzes 8,000 kilometers of Spanish coasts and awards a flag for pollution and another for environmental mismanagement to each of the coastal provinces.
Thus, it has awarded 5 black flags for conditions affecting biodiversity; 3 flags for coastal erosion; 3 due to accumulation of marine debris; 4 for dredging and port expansions without justification; 4 due to conditions as a result of the development of industrial areas near the coast; 10 by urbanization of the coast, sometimes even invading the maritime-terrestrial public domain.
In addition, it has designated 14 black flags for discharges, deficiencies in the sanitation systems and serious treatment problems and another 4 for other reasons such as aquaculture or chemical contamination.
For the first time in the report, a black flag is awarded to the impact of the sunscreens contained in sunscreen creams, which constitute an important polluting agent.
Specifically, the report includes the example of Nerja (Málaga) where tourist massification is added to the specific characteristics of the coves of the Acantilados de Maro-Cerro Gordo Natural Park, with semi-confined beaches, that is, with little hydrodynamics.
This combination means that the impact of solar filters constitutes an important danger for the protected biodiversity of this natural area. Sun creams may contain substances such as endocrine disruptors, among others, that not only affect the health of human beings but also that of seas, rivers or lakes.
The NGO denounces that the “ecological attacks” that grow in number every year, also increase the neighborhood movements of rejection that are increasingly aware of the health of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems. But he adds that despite the pressure and popular mobilization of associations, NGOs and neighborhood communities, the administrations turn a “deaf ear” and act “so slowly” that the changes “are barely noticeable.”
On the other hand, the report removes the black flag from two beaches, which have improved their situation due to the new treatment plant in Barbate (Cádiz); the arrangement of the Roquetas de Mar outfall (Almería) and the expansion of the treatment plant to include tertiary treatment and take advantage of reclaimed water.
The NGO also highlights the political, administrative and judicial initiatives spurred by social pressure carried out in the Mar Menor (Murcia). In this case, the black flag has not been removed, but the NGO highlights that some improvements are being observed as a result of social pressure, despite the fact that there is still “a lot to do” in the Mar Menor.
The spokesperson for Ecologistas en Acción, Ana Aldarias, celebrated and was pleased with these improvements, but added that it is necessary to emphasize that these are actions that “fall within the duties, powers and obligations of the administrations, and that there is still much to do”.
The also spokesman for the environmental organization, Cristóbal López Pazo, has stressed that the ‘Black Flags 2022’ report is a tool that makes it possible to make visible “flagrant cases” of pollution and environmental mismanagement of the coasts.
“All administrations have to become aware of these problems and act immediately to improve the health of our ecosystems, our economies and the people themselves.”
THE 48 BLACK FLAGS
In Andalusia, the black flags have fallen on the beaches of Cuevas de Almanzora and Costa de Levante de Adra, in Almería; Vejer and Barbate (Cadiz); La Rábita and La Charca (Granada); Ria de Huelva and Playa de La Antilla (Huelva); Maro-Cerro Gordo Cliffs and Coastline Natural Area in the province of Malaga (Málaga).
In Asturias: industrial sanitation Ría de Avilés and the Gijón Regasification Plant; the Saneamiento del Bajo Asón and the caravan parks on the coast of Cantabria. In Catalonia: the port and the airport in Barcelona; the Abarlofarras in coves of the Costa Brava and Pineda d’ in Gori (Girona); the beaches of Tarragona and Platja del Trabucador (Sant Carles de la Ràpita), in Tarragona. In Ceuta, for its part, it has awarded black flags to the coastline in front of the desalination plant and north bay of the city and the LICES6310002 of Monte Hacho.
For its part, in the Basque Country, the black flags have fallen on the Ría de Barbandun, Muskiz and Gernica and Murueta, in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, in Vizcaya; and in San Sebastián and the Port of Mutriku in Guipúzcoa. In Galicia they have fallen on the San Finx Mines (Lousame) and the dredging of the O’Burgo estuary in La Coruña; Arealonga Beach (San Cosme de Barreiros) and Pancha Island (Ribadeo) in Lugo; the estuary of Foz and the beaches of Vigo, in Pontevedra.
Balearic Islands: Puerto Colom and Puerto de Alcudia, in Mallorca and in the autonomous city of Melilla, Ecologistas en Acción has focused on the discharges from the city’s riverbeds and on the remodeling project of the Primo de Rivera barracks.
Finally, the black flags for the Valencian Community have been awarded to Cala de Lanuza and Cala Baeza and to the “Colossus” Calp Project in Alicante; Les Fonts Beach and Triador Beach (Vinaròs), in Castellón; the Pinedo treatment plant and the Tavernes beach dunes, in Valencia. Meanwhile, in the Region of Murcia they have fallen in Bahía de Portman and Sierra Minera and in the Mar Menor.
