According to Spanish media, Environmentalists are shocked after local authorities bleached a beach with bleach at a Spanish coastal resort in an attempt to protect local children from Covid-19.
A 1.2-kilometer (0.75-mile) stretch of shelf beach in the village of Zahara de Los Atunes Fishing in the Andalusian province of Cádiz was reportedly sprayed using a tractor with a few thousand liters of 2 percent bleach solution on Saturday. April 25. Local authorities claim that this was done to protect children who were allowed to enter for the first time in six weeks after the locking system was simplified.
The Andalusian regional government is now considering imposing fines on local authorities for the move. Agustín Conejo, a municipal official, according to Madrid-based newspaper El País said, “I understand it was a mistake, but it was done with the best of intentions.”
Local officials have since apologized for the short-sighted move, and environmentalists and locals are concerned about the potential environmental damage caused by the outbreak. For one, the coastal region is a prominent habitat of black-backed plovers (Charadrius Alexandrinus), a coastal bird protected by Spanish wildlife rules.
Daniel Sánchez Román, delegate in Cádiz for Sustainable Development of the Board, according to El País said, “This is a very sensitive area where plover breed every year.” He added, “Its environmental degradation.” This screw-up caught the attention of Greenpeace Spain, he tweeted, “Fumigating the beaches in the middle of the bird-breeding season or during the development of an invertebrate network that will help coastal fishing is not one of Trump’s ideas. This is happening in Zahra de Los Atunes, “he said, referring to President Trump’s recent suggestion that injecting antibiotics into the body could be used to treat Covid-19.
Spain is currently the second most affected country in the world in the case of confirmed Covid-19. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, there are currently 236,899 reports of Covid-19 in Spain and 24,275 deaths. Spain raised an alarming situation on March 14th and soon launched one of the toughest lockdowns in the world. This week the country has seen its lockdown measures gradually relaxed, such as allowing children under the age of 14 to go out for an hour a day.
Zahara de Los Atunes is not the only place in the world that has taken bizarre and misleading steps to stop the spread of Covid-19. Back in March, UK police spray-painted a watercolor in Derbyshire in an attempt to stop waters of the Barna waters, and the Swedish city of Lund is planning to dump a ton of chicks in its central park to deter publishers from celebrating a Swedish festival there.
