Expats on Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca waiting to find out when Spain’s residential complex swimming pools can reopen under lockdown de-escalation

EXPAT residents in Spain living in residential communities on the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca are still waiting to find out when they can get back into their complex pools.

The national association for administrators of Spain’s residential complexes has now called on the central government to come to a decision before the start of summer on when communal pools can reopen.

As it stands access is prohibited under the coronavirus crisis State of Alarm regulations.

In a letter sent to the Ministry of Health, the CGCAFE estate administrators’ association general council also asked the government to set out the conditions and protocols which communities will have to follow to get authorisation for opening pool facilities in the face of the ongoing risk from Covid-19 infection.

In normal times, community pools are a matter for each of Spain’s regional governments, but the association president Salvador Diaz believes “it is necessary for the regulation to be same throughout the country in order to achieve a desirable uniformity on the conditions.”

The association maintains there should be State regulation to establish measures for guaranteeing social distancing, which could well mean reducing pools’ authorised bather numbers. The administrators also point out that in the majority of complexes there are no checks on pool access, meaning it will be the responsibility of individual citizens.

A further issue is the opening up of facilities like changing rooms and toilets, which will require intensified cleaning and disinfection.