The Puerto de la Cruz Town Hall announced this Tuesday that the reopening of Playa Jardín can now be discussed “for next week”, after being closed to swimming for almost a year since July 2024 due to sewage discharges into the sea.
The announcement was made via a statement from the Tenerife Consistory, following the visit of the vice president of the Cabildo, Lope Afonso, to the treatment plant located in Punta Brava, along with the mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, Leopoldo Afonso, the councillors of Primary Sector and Natural Environment, Valentín González and Blanca Pérez, respectively, and the director general of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Montañés.
In the note, the Town Hall explained that the local corporation has promoted two intensive cycles of cleaning and civil works in the sanitation and rainwater network in Punta Brava.
These actions have led to a “notable improvement” in the results of the analyses carried out by Public Health from mid-December 2024 until now, offering a succession of 20 consecutive analyses with “legally permitted” results, as possible uncontrolled discharges to the sea have been eliminated, in addition to optimising wastewater treatment until it reaches the EDAR.
It should be noted that in March, the PSOE publicly denounced that the data provided by the Town Hall were not true and published others that contradicted the town hall’s version. “Since 17 December, there have been up to three episodes of E. coli contamination: on 5, 10, and 26 February, which at various sampling points exceeded the limit required by the Ministry of Health of 250, in addition to an episode of Enterococci on 5 February that exceeded the value of 100,” said the PSOE. Those analyses, according to the socialists, show that residual discharges continue to produce contamination episodes at the sampling points in the swimming area of the port.
Out of a total of eight days on which analyses have been carried out in 2025, the PSOE stated then, three have been above the limits required by Health at the three different sampling points. “If we consider the 40 sampling days since 1 July 2024, 18 gave results above the permitted levels, indicating that almost half of the samples in both 2024 and 2025 continue to show levels higher than those required for the swimming ban to be lifted,” the PSOE emphasised.
The reopening of Playa Jardín will be possible thanks to the completion of the implementation of tertiary treatment for wastewater managed at this regional treatment plant.
A work that also allows providing an additional flow of water for irrigation to the Cruz Santa reservoir in Los Realejos, which will guarantee “quality water” for farmers throughout the northern region.
During the visit to the treatment plant, Lope Afonso described the completion of the implementation of tertiary treatment for wastewater managed at this regional treatment plant as “very important for Puerto de la Cruz and Tenerife”, emphasising that “on one hand, this work provides an additional flow of water for much-needed irrigation at this time, which will be pumped from this EDAR to the Cruz Santa reservoir in Los Realejos, guaranteeing quality water for farmers throughout the northern region.”
The vice president also valued the “conscientious work” of the Puerto de la Cruz Town Hall, the Island Water Council, and the Government of the Canary Islands, through its directorates of Ecological Transition and Public Health.
