THE long-running environmental dispute between Gibraltar and parts of Spanish society has taken a new turn after a major raw sewage discharge in Spain has forced the closure of a beach situated just metres from the Rock.
The environmental campaign group Verdemar-Ecologistas en Accion has launched a formal complaint with public health authorities after a massive plume of untreated urban waste began pouring into the sea.
The spill has hit Playa de Levante in La Linea de la Concepcion, the Spanish border town that directly overlooks the British territory.
Local authorities have officially cordoned off the affected sands and hoisted a red flag to ban swimming.
Yet numerous bathers have been spotted defying the red flags and swimming in the heavily contaminated waters just as summer gets underway.
The green group described the discharge as raw, unpurified urban effluent characterized by dark water, floating solid human waste, and a foul stench.
There are also fears that strong sea currents will carry the urban effluent directly into the Strait of Gibraltar, a highly protected marine reserve within the European Network Natura 2000.
The environmentalists are calling for an investigation to determine if the failure by Spanish authorities constitutes a grave infraction or even an environmental crime.
The border spill highlights a long-standing environmental dispute between Spain and its British neighbour.
Spanish politicians have spent decades attacking Gibraltar for its historic lack of a wastewater treatment plant.
The British territory, home to nearly 40,000 residents, has for decades pumped its household and toilet waste directly into the sea at its southern-most end of Europa Point, relying on strong currents for natural dispersion.
This state of affairs was recently highlighted in a widely-read Guardian article, drawing condemnation from environmentalists beyond just the Campo de Gibraltar.
The European Court of Justice ruled that the UK was in breach of EU environmental law in 2017, though post-Brexit legal shifts later removed enforcement powers from the European Commission.
Plans to construct a dedicated treatment facility on the Rock have repeatedly collapsed over the last decade.
However, this latest crisis on the shoreline of La Linea shows that the problem of raw sewage discharge is widespread and Gibraltar is not the only culprit, while Spanish authorities are failing to prevent the exact same environmental damage on their own side of the border.
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