Canary Islands obtains 60 Blue Flag awards in this year’s edition. From them, 56 correspond to beaches and four to marinas. On the positive side, the fact that both the Tenerife municipalities of La Laguna and Arona reached their third Flag stands out, while in the opposite sense it is worth mentioning the removal of the emblem from Las Canteras beach, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The regional government recalled yesterday in the Archipelago, the Blue Flag initiative is managed with the collaboration of the Ministry of Health, through the General Directorate of Public Health of the Canarian Health Service.
The Blue Flag distinguishes those beaches and marinas that meet the criteria of excellence in the quality of bathing water, comply with environmental regulations and have adequate health and safety infrastructure to guarantee the health and safety of beach users. same.
In this edition, Tenerife has 14 beaches where this emblem will fly, to which is added the marina of the Real Club Náutico de Tenerife, located in Santa Cruz. It is followed by Gran Canaria, with 13 distinguished beaches and two marinas, those of mogan and Pasito Blanco, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana; Fuerteventura obtains 11 blue flags for its coasts and Lanzarote has seven, in addition to the Marina Puerto Calero, in Yaiza. La Palma, with six; La Gomera, with three, and El Hierro, with two, complete the record this year.
The Canary Islands increased the number of Blue Flags by two compared to the previous year, when it obtained 54 for its beaches (56 in this edition) and four for marinas. Keep the latter. It is an advance that brings the Islands closer to the figures for the year 2021, when they achieved a total of 64 (59 on beaches and 5 in marinas).
The lagoon
A relevant novelty in the Blue Flag list released yesterday is the presence in it of Jóver, on the Tejina coast. La Laguna City Council celebrates the distinction obtained for the first time by the Jóver natural pool, as well as the renewal of this environmental recognition for the Bajamar and Arenisco natural pools. The lagoon coast thus adds three Blue Flags that join the Blue Path of the Camino de la Costa, or San Juanito.
The mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, stresses that “it comes to recognize the environmental values of this enclave and, above all, rewards the work we have been doing in recent years to protect our coastline and position the lagoon coast as a natural and sustainable destination of reference in the Canary Islands». The councilor points out that from the Works and Pools area “permanent conservation and improvement works are carried out, in terms of accessibility, security with lifeguard teams and endowment. That work is now recognized with this badge.
alajeró
Playa de Santiago, in the Gomera municipality of Alajeró, has won the European Blue Flag for thirteen consecutive years. A recognition that rewards the efforts of the city council and managers of marinas for meeting the high demands that this award entails and that supposes a guarantee of sanitary and environmental quality, care of the environment, accessibility and services and an exemplary level of water quality.
The Consistory shows its “enormous satisfaction for this recognition of the effort not only of the City Council, but also of the residents of the town, who are the first protectors and caretakers of our unique coastal environment.”
La Restinga
The beach in the El Pinar municipality of El Hierro renews the Blue Flag for the seventh consecutive year. In addition, La Restingolita is once again distinguished as a Blue Center in which, among other things, visitors are offered information on the coastal ecosystem and the Blue Flag program. This award is an endorsement for the promotion of tourism and a reward for the work of all the people involved, maintains the Consistory.
San Bartolome
The beaches of San Agustín, Meloneras, Playa del Inglés and Faro de Maspalomas, located in the Gran Canaria municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, fully recover their blue flags. The Association for Environmental and Consumer Education includes the beach of Maspalomas. In line with the other winners, it is valued as the result of the work and the transformation carried out on the municipality’s coastline, thanks to the work of the security forces and vigilance of the coast, as well as the workers cleaning the coast and public spaces.
The pits
The beach of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria does not have this quality mark this year. The report issued by Bandera Azul 2023 and communicated to the City Council “indicates that all the bathing water quality sampling points in Las Canteras reach levels of excellence, except PM1, located in La Puntilla, whose rating is good.” This was announced yesterday by the local government, for which Las Canteras “maintains a very good level of quality of bathing water and public servicesas ratified by the latest data from the periodic sampling carried out by the General Directorate of Public Health of the Government of the Canary Islands and which is collected by the National Bathing Water Information System, Náyade».
Blue Flag is an annual award and certification system for environmental quality developed by the Federation for Environmental Education (FEE). In Spain, he coordinates this initiative ADEAC (Association for Environmental and Consumer Education).
In Los Cristianos the Blue Flag will fly again
The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, celebrates that Los Cristianos beach has recovered the Blue Flag for the quality of the environment and its services, which leads the municipality of Aron to add three banners for its beaches, since, together with that of Los Cristianos, obtains recognition for Las Vistas and El Camisón. In this way, Arona is once again the first municipality in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in this matter, only equaled by San Cristóbal de La Laguna, which sees its natural pools recognized in equal numbers. | DE
