Costa del Sol towns meet in Marbella to discuss problem of invasive algae

Marbella hosted a meeting on Thursday with other municipalities of the association of municipalities of the western Costa del Sol to jointly analyse the difficult situation of the coastline with regard to the arrival of tonnes of invasive algae. The town’s mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, pointed out that keeping the coast clean of invasive algae remains is a “huge effort” for the local administration.

“We are very affected by this issue. Tonnes of algae are removed every night and it arrives again in the early hours of the morning, which means that the beach teams rarely get a break,” Muñoz said.

The participating councils pooled their experiences and demanded a technical and budgetary response from central government in Madrid. “We have no help from any other administration. It is only at the municipal level and I believe that the first thing that must be demanded, in this case from the central government, is that it puts on the table the technical criteria and the solvency at the research level that will allow a medium-term result to an epidemic that is invading us more and more every year,” Muñoz explained.

The mayor also emphasised the difficulties in cleaning up the debris. “We don't always have sand in the area. There are beaches that are very stony and, therefore, we cannot remove the algae with machines, so we have to do it by hand,” she said.

Flying the flags

Despite the difficulties, the mayor highlighted the level of quality of Marbella's beaches thanks to the “effort” made by the council. Marbella now boasts 12 blue flags in addition to the 36 'Q' for Quality and 'S' for Sustainability.

“The town hall will continue working resolutely to maintain and even expand this level of excellence. We are aware that our beaches are one of the main tourist assets,” she concluded.