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Gibraltar's fast disappearing beaches
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by PANORAMA reporter
Even allowing for the fact that it’s off season it is astounding that beaches on the eastern side of the Rock have been allowed to get to a state resembling a scruffy stretch of unkempt shoreline not connected or forming part of some inhabitable piece of land like Gibraltar.
Beaches permeate part of our popular culture. But local beaches also appear to be disappearing at an alarming rate, all this due to both natural processes and human interventions.
Already users of Western Beach have been told that their beach has been given the kiss-of-death and has closed until further notice mainly thanks to all the Spanish crap and sewage floating over into Gibraltar waters.
If none of this was enough the public beaches on the eastern side are covered with boulders and rocks of all sizes, scrap-metal and anything you could think of, it’s certainly not safe for anyone to walk, given that dog owners also take their pets to the beach to do their own kind of dumping doesn’t help either, a really disgusting situation!
Users of Sandy Bay certainly know how it feels to see their favourite summer beach disappear before their very eyes. It's quite unbelievable that this beach, popular as it is, has evaporated to a size that even half-a-dozen seagulls would have difficulty in finding a sandy patch to land!
Catalan Bay has been given a new shore line a carpet of rocks and boulders which will do wonders for ankles and tender souls of the feet once the summer arrives, this if the situation is not improved soon, as it looks like a lot of work to put right.
Eastern Beach opposite the Latino’s bar looks particularly bad apart from the rocks and accompanying boulders there are pieces of scrap metal and rust covered bars and what have you, certainly not a place to take your kids on a sunny winter/spring weekend for a stretch on the sands.
At the moment all these beaches would make picture perfect postcards to promote one of Gibraltar’s free touristic leisure locations, this of course if the tourists we were attracting were coming from the rocky Afghan mountains!
Why the beaches should be allowed to get to such a state is unexplainable be it winter, summer or spring it doesn’t really matter what time of the year it is.
It is to be presumed that at some stage or other beaches will be cleaned to a safe state for public use. But why allow them to get to such a condition in the first place and then have to spend thousands of pounds of tax payers’ money to clean them up because they were not maintained and were in fact allowed to deteriorate during the off-season.
15-02-11
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