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Date Published: 02/07/2020

ARCHIVED - Three Los Alcázares beaches prohibit bathing due to Gota Fría damage

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

Image: Mari Luz@mluz

All other beaches were flying green flags on the first day of the bathing season

The beaches of playa Carrión, La Concha and Manzanares, in Los Alcázares were the only beaches flying a red flag warning against bathing on the first day of the 2020 summer campaign, due to the presence of debris in the waters carried down into the Mar Menor during the floods of September 2019.

In Los Alcázares 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 and for months afterwards the council, coastal department and regional authorities worked to clear debris and repair the damage, but there are still areas requiring attention.

Los Alcázares council brought in a team of five divers to carry out an intensive search of the waters close in to the shoreline in mid-June and a large quantity of debris was located including a beer keg, crates, street furniture and all sorts of pieces of metal and other debris.

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Three Los Alcázares beaches prohibit bathing due to Gota Fría damage

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.

So the beaches have remained closed to bathers, although social media posts from the weekend show that some bathers are ignoring the safety advice and are entering the water, putting themselves at risk from the debris still close to the shore.

And as the bathing season opened on 1st July and the summer Plan Copla swung into action, these were the only beaches in the region still closed to bathers.

Join the Mar Menor group on Facebook for info about Los Alcázares, San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, Torre Pacheco, La Unión and Cartagena and keep up to date with all the latest news and events in the Mar Menor: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarMenorNewsAndEvents/