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ARCHIVED - Mar Menor clean-up goes on after Gota Fría flooding
Water quality gradually improves as beaches begin to re-open
After incalculable amounts of debris were washed into the Mar Menor by the gota fría storm in mid-September efforts continue to clear the water of all kinds of objects, with cars, rubbish containers and vegetation from small plants and reeds to large trees being removed by the teams working on the project.
At the same time, there are tiny but discernible signs that the water quality in the lagoon is beginning to recover from the massive influx of debris, which included soil containing the kinds of fertilizers and nitrates which are held largely responsible for the deterioration of the marine environment over the last couple of decades. The latest readings show slight improvements in the level of oxygen, the salinity and other parameters, although the oxygen, transparency and chlorophyll measurements are all still close to being the worst since detailed data were first gathered systematically and regularly in 2016.
On another hand, though, the latest tests carried out by the Murcia health authorities offer good news in terms of the suitability of the water for bathing. The levels of enterococcus and e. coli bacteria, which had brought about a ban on swimming due, most probably, to untreated sewage having made its way into the Mar Menor, are found to have decreased between 23rd and 30th September. At the Mar Menor beaches of Cartagena and Los Alcázares they are now acceptable, and as a result bathing is no longer completely banned.
There are, though, other problems, as the images above suggest, and bathing is not recommended at Playa Caravaning, Estrella de Mar, Los Urrutias and Los Nietos in the municipality of Cartagena or at the beaches of La Concha, Carrión, Manzanares and Espejo in Los Alcázares. This is officially due to the abundance of flood debris along the shoreline, and although local sources still harbour doubts over water quality the latest tests will go some way towards reassuring them that the situation is improving.
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