Bathing jetties on Mar Menor beaches will be ready in June
For another year running, floating pontoons will be needed to swim in the Mar Menor due to the flotsam and jetsam on the shore
The polluted state of the Mar Menor lagoon means that, for yet another year, temporary floating pontoons will have to be installed in order to allow people to get past the muck on the shoreline to swim further out in the water this summer.
To do this, the Coastal Department of the Cartagena City Council recently put out to tender the contract for the assembly, transfer and maintenance of the five of these structures that are to be placed in the municipality.
Three structures will be placed on the beaches of Los Nietos, one in Playa Honda and another in Playa Cavanna.
The deadline for installation companies to submit their bids to be the ones to build these jetties expires on May 11, which means that Cartagena City Council reckons the actual installation will “begin in early June, so that from 15th of that month, when the high season begins, almost all are in place.”
In Los Nietos they will be placed in the same locations as last year: one in the area where the premises of the Neighbourhood Association ‘La Pescadería’ are located, another one almost reaching Calle Dátil del Mar, and the last one on the beach of El Arenal.
However, the Los Nietos Neighbourhood Association have criticised the “delay” in the installation of these pontoons since “last year, at Easter they were already in place” and “people in the town start bathing at this time of year”.
Locals there have repeatedly condemned the “lamentable” state of the beach and its shore, saying it is dirty, full of mud, algae, paper, plastic and cigarette butts.
The residents of Playa Honda have expressed their satisfaction with the news, as they consider the installation of the infrastructure “necessary” because, “despite the fact that according to the biologist the quality of the water in the area is among the best in the salt lagoon, [the pontoon] is necessary to access the water at a certain point,” according to Francisca Alcaraz, secretary of the Playa Honda Mar Menor Residents’ Association.
She added, “It is a great attraction and last year, when it was also installed, people liked it a lot.”
Image: CARM
