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ARCHIVED - Protest march Saturday August 6 against sand erosion on Murcia beaches

Groups from Cabo de Palos, Los Nietos, Mazarrón and Puntas de Calnegre are demanding a change to planning laws

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Protest march Saturday August 6 against sand erosion on Murcia beaches

Several neighbourhood associations from Cabo de Palos, Los Nietos, Mazarrón and Puntas de Calnegre are joining forces with the Federation of People Affected by the Coastal Law of the Region of Murcia, are organising a protest over the current state of the beaches on Saturday August 6.

More than 30 groups representing the Mediterranean coast will take part in the demonstration, which aims to force a change in planning laws to protect the shoreline and recover the sandbanks that have been eroded by the sea and various public works.

The protestors claim that the sandbanks remained stable for thousands of years and only began to deteriorate with the building of ports and reservoirs.

“There is nothing wrong with these infrastructures by themselves, they are designed for the common good and to generate wealth. However, when carrying out their activities, they retain billions of cubic meters of sand in their breakwaters and dams,” the president of the Association of People Affected by the Coastal Law in the Region, Fede Aniorte, explained.

The associations want the local governments to act now while there is still time to save the coastline and have asked for “a sensible dialogue with the State Administrations, so that they protect our constitutional rights and prioritize people and the environment in decision-making”.

One of the most worrying aspects of the regression of the sandbanks is that it puts at risk those traditional homes and commercial buildings that are an important part of the Region’s heritage. Just last year, the Cabo de Palos Neighbourhood Association successfully prevented the demolition of a house on Levante beach, which the General Directorate of Coasts has demanded by torn down since it occupies the public domain.

This time around, the protestors insist that the houses along the Levante beach front are “completely legal since 1867, but the The Ministry of Ecological Transition wants to expropriate them at zero cost, arguing, with unrigorous and incomplete scientific data, that the sea will invade them by 2100.”

The protest march will begin at 7pm on Saturday at the end of the promenade on the Levante beach, next to the Katy restaurant.

Image: Archive

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