Environmentalists slam sand extraction from protected Costa Blanca beach

DAMAGING: Ecologists in Action claim the dunes have been left more exposed to winter storms CREDIT: commons.wikimedia.org

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have strongly criticised the extraction of sand from the L’Ahuir beach in Gandia to use for beach regeneration in other locations.
Valencia Ecologists in Action claims the practice is damaging L’Ahuir, which has Place of Community Interest status and is catalogued as a beach for special protection.
The environmental organisation maintains that removing sand from L’Ahuir to deposit on beaches including the Goleta in Tavernes de la Valldigna is changing its structure and leaving the dunes more exposed to winter storms.
Also, that the noise and emissions from the lorries can affect the Kentish plover shorebirds, a protected species, for which the beach is a natural habitat.
Ecologists in Action further argues that while depositing sand to recover the width of a beach is a costly process, it does not solve the problem in the longer term. The sand gets washed away in the event of extreme weather, the organisation says, as was seen in last September’s violent storms.
The environmentalists call for an end to removing sand from L’Ahuir, insisting priority should be given to protecting the beach and its dunes due to the flora and fauna which inhabit the zone.

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Written by

Cathy Elelman

Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.

Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.

Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.

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