Date Published: 18/06/2020
ARCHIVED - Los Alcázares sends in diving team to search for debris in the Mar Menor
ARCHIVED ARTICLE The council says it will not open beaches until it is sure that debris has been fully removed following the Gota Fría last September
On Monday evening Spain moves out of the state of emergency, and it is likely that a large number of second home owners will head for the coast to enjoy a relaxing summer break.
Los Alcázares is one of many locations preparing for the anticipated onslaught but for this particular municipality the preparations for this summer have been complicated by several episodes of heavy rains, during which millions of litres of water have washed down into the lagoon via the ramblas and natural waterways of the municipality, the worst in September 2019.
During this episode, which was as a direct result of a Gota Fría storm, the water level in the 70 square kilometre area of the lagoon, rose by 70cm, such was the enormous volume of water and debris carried down the waterways.
The regional government cleared an estimated 4,000 cubic metres of debris from the lagoon in the days immediately following the storm.
For months after the storm the council, coastal department and regional authorities have been working to clear debris and repair the damage, and now the pressure is on to get the beaches back into good condition before the summer tourists arrive.
Los Alcázares council is concerned to make sure that it is absolutely safe for bathers to use its beaches and has decided to bring in a team of five divers to carry out an intensive search of the waters close in to the shoreline to ensure that all of the debris has been cleared away and it is safe for bathers to walk out into the shallows.
One of the great attractions of the Mar Menor is the shallow shelf along its beaches, and in many places it is possible to walk out 50-100 metres from the shore and still be only waist high in the warm water, perfect for bathers, but this does mean that a large area of shoreline needs to be cleared and checked.
The council believes that it should not be paying for this itself, and this cleaning should have been undertaken by the national coastal department, but also believes that security is top priority and that this job needs to be done before opening the beaches of La Concha, Carrión and Manzanares.
Failure to do so, it believes, will damage the tourist potential for local businesses.
The five man team will use specialized equipment for this task, such as underwater metal detectors, photo and video cameras, and beacon buoys in case large objects are found which require mechanical aid to extract them.
This isn´t melodrama; during the floods cars were washed down into the Mar Menor along with tons of agricultural equipment, furniture and debris gathered as floodwaters tumbled down the ramblas and into the lagoon.
The Mayor also reiterated his call for bathing pontoons to replace sand in areas which are constantly vulnerable to water run-off.
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