ARCHIVED - Murcia government reiterates that the Mar Menor is completely safe for bathing

Antonio Luengo again calls for the Spanish government to take steps to protect the lagoon

Antonio Luengo, the minister for Water, Agriculture and the Environment in the regional government of Murcia, reiterated on Tuesday that the water of the Mar Menor is still perfectly fit for bathing.

Speaking in an interview with Europa Press Sr Luengo explained that at present there is no guarantee that the water will be transparent in the Mar Menor this summer, but that is not an indication of its being polluted. The latest tests confirm that there are no harmful bacteria in the water, and minister added that if this were not the case the government would inform the public immediately.

There have been comments on social media warning bathers not to enter the water, but the minister reiterated that the green algal bloom which has started to form as the water temperature rises, does not represent the presence of fecal waste or toxic materials and is not harmful to bathers, although is visually unattractive.

Antonio Luengo also underlined the opinion of the Murcia government that in order to improve the condition of the lagoon the top priority is to prevent the flow of water from the Rambla del Albujón and from the aquifer under the Campo de Cartagena into the Mar Menor, steps which can only be taken by the CHS water authority and the national government. 6 tons of nitrates are making their way into the lagoon every day, he reiterated, and it is up to the government in Madrid to put an end to it as soon as possible by reducing the level of water in the aquifer and preventing any more runoff via the ramblas.

(The body responsible for the Ramblas (natural flood channels) in Murcia is the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura (CHS), which administers water infrastructures in the Segura basin. The basin includes parts of the regions of Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha and the Comunidad Valenciana as well as Murcia and the CHS is a part of the Ministry for Ecological Transition in the national government : hence Sr Luengo's insistence on the national government being responsible.)

In the meantime, efforts are being made to remove the algal bloom which has begun to form in the Mar Menor, but the reality is that as soon as the severe flooding caused by the “gota fría” storm of last September began to ease observers were already aware that a difficult period lay ahead for the lagoon. When that was followed by more flooding in December and January, with the consequent runoff of water containing nutrients from the farmland of the Cartagena, a deterioration in the appearance of the Mar Menor became almost inevitable, and that is precisely what is being witnessed now: the latest data regarding water quality show a drop in the oxygen level in the water over the last couple of weeks (although not an alarming one as yet) while the salinity remains lower than at any time since spring 2017.

Personnel are working full time to remove the algal bloom by hand as the use of machinery damages the marine environment, although as water temperatures rise this becomes an endlessly repetitive task.

The algae is concentrated in the shallower areas of this vast lagoon where the water is warmer.

Click here for an overview of the underlying causes of the alterations in the marine environment over the last 50 years and some of the factors which make it so difficult to reverse the process.

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