Walter Finch
FOR those not aware, the annual Black Flags report details the true state of Spain’s beaches.
It rips away the PR veil and calls out the town halls, local governments and business interests that ravage certain areas of the coastline.
It was dreamed up by the action group Ecologists in Action as a riposte to the sparklingly whitewashed Blue Flags report, which so often passes Spain’s beaches with flying colours.
And while the Black Flags report can wind up losing impact by adopting a repetitive tone – identifying the same poor infrastructure or unwanted developments year after year – the 2024 edition is a little different.
READ MORE: THESE are the 48 beaches handed ‘black flags’ for pollution, mass tourism and over development
This year, Spain’s leading green group is pulling no punches.
The hard-hitting report goes for the jugular, detailing how time and time again local politicians and even regional bodies are blatantly violating environmental laws.
It even calls out the Director General of Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change at the Junta de Andalucia by name.
Across beautiful beaches and tourist hotspots in Spain, developments are being approved and blind eyes are being turned to barbarities and abuses.
In clear infringements of Spanish and European laws, the Canary Islands are allowing four new mega resorts.
This from a political class which ‘flaunts its multi-billion dollar profits’ while more than 35% of the Canaries population is ‘at risk of poverty’ and the unemployment rate sits at 20%.
It’s little different in Andalucia, where the Junta has sanctioned a beach bar in Fuengirola that grossly violates regulations and threatens the integrity of the coast.
Meanwhile, in Tarifa and Vejer, the battlelines are being drawn in the sand as a phalanx of wealthy developers continue to sniff around for coastal land to raze.
In Valencia the situation is worse, while the Balearics fare no better.
The politicians are committing harakiri on what is left of this country’s coastline.
As the their constituents are being strangled by a collar of concrete, the elected politicians continue to court the deep pockets of, mostly, foreign investors, who won’t think twice about carving up what’s left before jumping on their private planes elsewhere.
The result isn’t just developments that don’t meet regulations and lack supporting infrastructure, but a ‘touristified’ economy which creates new jobs in the low-paying hospitality sector while the cost of housing spirals unaffordably.
The majority of these developments are not in the interests of the Spanish population and it’s hard not to wonder why their elected leaders keep green-lighting them.
While we hesitate to use the dreaded ‘C-word’, a forensic investigation into the personal bank accounts of certain politicians approving these projects is in order.
Madrid must get a grip on the unhealthy relationship between business and politics which has been flourishing in plain sight at the municipal level for years.
Spain’s coasts have a limit. Saving what’s left is vital for the future of the country.
It’s about time this has come up for discussion. There is clearly a problem here. There are not enough resources for all the development the government officials are approving, not to mention that they are destroying the coastline and everything within a few miles of the cost. There isn’t t enough water or anything else. Spain is turning into a desert at an alarming rate. A rate that will only be sped up by all the building, carbon,etc. Building projects are approved here without environmental impact reports or input from the community. It wreaks of corruption!