Black spot in Spain Coast

"This week Greenpeace Spain released an exhaustive report, which identified 291 coastal "black spots". Each "black spot" highlights a specific problem such as urbanization, overdevelopment and wastewater dumping."
From El País: ‘Greenpeace attacks apathy in face of coast’s destruction: organization highlights approval of 1.5 million new homes’ | “Spain’s once pristine beaches are now smothered in villas, hotels and golf courses looking out onto a sea of raw sewage and industrial runoff. That is the grim picture painted by Greenpeace in its latest report on the state of Spain’s coastline, which the environmental organization claims has continued to deteriorate over the past year.

The report, based on a study of Spain’s 8,000 kilometers of shoreline, is the latest in a string of warnings by environmentalists and researchers over the damage being done to coastal areas by unbridled development to make way for holiday homes and lax enforcement of environmental protection laws in many regions.

“The Spanish coastline is defenseless,” María José Caballero, a Greenpeace representative, argued during the report’s presentation Tuesday. “Although citizens are increasingly aware of the degradation it is facing, no administration is taking the challenge seriously.””


“Valencia, Andalusia and Galicia stand out as the regions where the coastline is under the greatest threat, with the environmental group having identified what it calls 286 black spots along the coast, which in “90 percent of cases” are linked to urban development.

The report also cites 102 cases of official corruption in coastal areas, most of which Greenpeace notes, are closely connected to the real estate and construction sectors and often involve the lax interpretation and enforcement of environmental and urban planning laws.”
Sources: http://www.barcelonareporter.com/



Golf course proliferation

The quantity of newly planned golf courses is simply shocking. The Andalusia community alone will have 210 golf courses if current plans are implemented. On an average, a golf course’s annual water consumption of 700,000 cubic metres is equivalent to the water consumption of 15,000 people.

In theory, these golf courses must be irrigated with treated wastewater - to save fresh water supplies for agriculture and human consumption. However, due to a lack of water treatment plants, most golf courses in Spain irrigate with fresh water. Meanwhile, Spain suffers through its worst drought in fifty years."
source: http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/concrete-stranglehold

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