No health risk for bathers in the Mar Menor

Environmental concerns should not be misconstrued by tourists in the Mar Menor

Over the last few weeks the regional government of Murcia has begun to implement measures which are intended to save the Mar Menor from further contamination by waste water from the towns and agricultural land which lie on its inland side, but in the meantime there is a danger that the bad press which this has generated could seriously affect the area’s reputation and the tourist industry.

On Thursday, for example, national newspaper El País ran an article under the headline “The Mar Menor, on the verge of collapse”, referring to the saltwater lagoon’s fragile ecosystem. The concern over the future of this unique environment is of course entirely justified, but unfortunately the article pays little or no attention to the “green filter” system which has been decided on by the regional government, and which has already been successful in the wetlands of Albufera, just south of the city of Valencia or any of the projects to build new stormwater tanks which help to limit the run-off.

Much mention is made of the problems caused by nitrates and phosphates which run into the Mar Menor as a result of their being present in fertilizers on agricultural land, but the topic of the green filters is not mentioned until the very last sentence of the article.

Of course the matter of contamination in the Mar Menor is an extremely important one, but unfortunately people often misconstrue the information in the press, and as the peak summer tourism season begins this is becoming increasingly apparent on social network sights. The tourist offices of Los Alcázares and other Mar Menor municipalities are having to field numerous queries regarding whether or not it is safe to swim there while the construction of the green filters, which require the expropriation of 40 hectares of land, is yet to begin.

The answer to this question is simple: yes, the beaches of the Mar Menor are safe. Weekly meetings are held among representatives of the Town Halls and the regional government’s health and environmental authorities to review the fortnightly water quality tests which are carried out at over 80 locations in the Costa Cálida, and at present the results of these tests again and again show that there is no additional health risk for bathers in the Mar Menor compared to the beaches on the Mediterranean coast. 

The results of the tests are available to members of the public on Town Hall websites and on the Murcia Salud page (https://www.murciasalud.es/pagina.php?id=355649).

As the Town Hall of Los Alcázares stated on Wednesday, it is true that in some parts of the Mar Menor the water has an unusual greenish hue this summer, but this in no way means that the water has become unsuitable for bathing and water sports. 

To repeat: the situation in the Mar Menor is a serious one, hence the implementation of urgent measures by the regional government in Murcia, but this should NOT be taken to mean that the lagoon is a soup of toxins and pollution: the water is perfectly apt for bathing, and the only reason not to do so is the unusually strong winds which have made swimming slightly less attractive on a couple of days over the last week!

Image: The seafront at Los Nietos