MALAGA’S town hall has confirmed sewage was deliberately released into the sea during Saturday’s storm to stop it flooding people’s homes.
The admission follows the closure of six Malaga beaches for swimming at the weekend after E. coli was found in the water.
Malaga’s sustainability councillor, Penelope Gomez, told Malaga daily Diario Sur that the city’s main sewers are combined pipes carrying rainwater and waste together, so during Saturday’s storm engineers had to open relief valves and send some of that mixture straight out to sea.
“If we didn’t let it out, the whole city would flood with dirty water,” she said.
READ MORE: Malaga bans swimming at six beaches after E. coli bacteria found in the water
It is the same trade-off — flood the sea or flood the streets — that has made storm overflows such a toxic issue for water companies back in the UK.
Gomez said the system itself is not really the problem.
Instead, more than 2,300 tonnes of wet wipes are pulled from Malaga’s sewers every year, clogging pipes at the exact points that then force overflows into the sea, at a cleanup cost of close to €2 million a year.
“The main factor is people flushing wet wipes down the toilet,” she said. “That is what blocks certain points and makes the spill worse.”
Malaga town hall raised red flags on Monday at Campo de Golf-San Julian, Guadalmar and La Misericordia, the string of beaches nearest the airport on the city’s western edge.
READ MORE: Three Benalmadena beaches reopen after bathers hit by mystery skin reactions – but two remain shut
The same order covered Sacaba and San Andres, further along that stretch towards the centre, plus El Palo, the old fishing quarter about six kilometres east of it.
The closures follow analysis by Emasa, Malaga’s municipal water company, which tested samples taken on Sunday and found E. coli above the safe limit set by Spain’s bathing water rules.
The contamination stems from a storm in the early hours of Saturday, August 15, just as Malaga’s Feria, the city’s biggest annual festival, got under way.
Spain’s weather agency, Aemet, recorded 18.5mm of rain at the airport, 14mm of it in under an hour.
READ MORE: Popular Costa Blanca beach has swimming ban imposed due to water quality concerns
Diario Sur reported that Policia Local officers have been clearing swimmers out of the water at some of the affected beaches to enforce the ban.
Diario Sur separately reports that the closures have revived the town hall’s own case for separating rainwater and sewage into distinct pipe networks, with a major storm-water tank tied to the rehabilitation of the Carreteria collector due to go to tender this year.
The town hall’s own goal is to get 70% of the network separated — solid evidence, at least, that officials know exactly what needs fixing.
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