Fourth suspension in a row. Europe is once again focusing on the pollution of the coast at the mouth of the Besòs, due to metropolitan sanitation works that have been pending for years. The Fòrum de Sant Adrià beach is one of the six Spanish beaches that the European Environment Agency considers unsuitable for swimming. It is among the half a dozen bathing areas on the Spanish coast that have a quality considered “poor”, according to the data made public this week by the European agency.
The poor quality of the Fòrum beach has been repeated in the reports of the European Agency since 2019, while in the years between 2015 and 2018 its situation was rated between “sufficient” and “good “. However, in 2013 and 2014 he also got bad results.
Apart from the Fòrum beach, the European Agency includes in the document three other bathing areas in Catalonia that are also suspending the 2022 examination due to poor bathing water quality. This is Rec del Molà beach, in l’Escala, the Banyoles lake and the Torrassa reservoir, in Guingueta d’Àneu.
The European Agency estimates that Confital beach in Gran Canaria, Sopazos beach in Pontedeume and the mouth of the Ulla river, both in Pontevedra, are also not suitable for swimming. However, according to this body, the quality of bathing waters in Spain (considering both beach bathing areas and inland areas, i.e. gorges, rivers, reservoirs, gorges) is “excellent †in 88.2% of cases and “good†in another 7.6% of the analyzed areas. However, 1.7% obtained a “sufficient” and another 1.6% had a “poor” result. That is to say, in total there are 37 areas not suitable for swimming in Spain: 31 in interior areas and six on beaches.
The quality of coastal bathing waters in Spain is superior to that of inland bathing waters: 92.8% of the former have an “excellent” rating in the report, while in the latter case the percentage decreases to 55.9%. This is due to more frequent renewal and a greater capacity for self-cleaning.
The European countries with the best bathing water quality on the beaches are, in that order, Cyprus (with 99.2% of coastal areas in “excellent” condition), Croatia (98.9%), Greece (96.5%), Slovenia (95.2%), Malta (94.3%), Denmark (93.9%) and Spain (92.8%).
Since the adoption of the bathing water directive in 2006, the proportion of sites in an excellent situation has increased. However, some oenagés question these data, since the report essentially reflects the risks of bacteriological contamination of faecal origin. On the other hand, “they don’t show a real picture of the state of our bathing and leisure areas”, says Lucille Labayle, responsible for the water quality and health campaign of. “On the one hand, the proliferation of algae and plastic waste are only included in beach profiles or are only visually inspected. On the other hand, chemical pollution is not taken into account at all”, laments Labayle.
