Benidorm intensifies quality controls on the beaches at the start of the high season

With the start of the high season just around the corner and as usual at this time, Benidorm City Council has intensified quality controls on the city's beaches. Thus, the municipal laboratory staff "take weekly samples of the water, sand and footbaths at different points on all the beaches to certify the excellent condition of the three elements through analytics", as explained by the Councilor for Beaches, Mónica Gomez.

These analytics "are tremendously useful because they allow us to have updated information at all times about the state of the beaches, and even detect possible eventualities that may occur."

During the high season, he has specified, the taking of samples and the analyzes are carried out weekly, while in the months of lower influx and use of the beaches they are carried out every 15 days.

In addition to this weekly control, Gómez has stressed that "if any incident is detected, the laboratory staff takes additional samples." Something that has been done in recent days at a very specific point on Poniente beach due to the presence of small yellow spots on the shore.
As the councillor has clarified, "the analyzes carried out to confirm that these spots, recurrent at this time of year, correspond to an accumulation of pine pollen, which the tides extract to the shore."

This pollen, she has stressed, "does not affect the quality of the water" and "disappears naturally".

Gómez pointed out that "the fact that this year there has been more rain than usual on the Mediterranean coast has increased the volumes of pollen in suspension, and hence its presence has become more visible on the shores of the beaches."

The person in charge of Beaches, who is also in charge of the Health area, has remarked that "having our service such as that of the municipal laboratory makes it possible for these issues to be addressed immediately and we know almost instantly that these episodes are due to causes natural”. This promptness "makes it possible to give users a quick response of peace of mind" since circumstances such as the presence of pollen on the shore do not affect the quality of our bathing waters, which "analysis after analysis, are excellent".