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Medio Ambiente cleans the Costa del Sol coastline in Málaga

11/07/2017

Medio Ambiente cleans the Costa del Sol coastline in Málaga

The Association of Western Costa del Sol District Councils has launched a service with 11 vessels to safeguard the quality of the water at the area's beaches. The patrol boats will remove any scum and waste so that these Málaga beaches are kept at their best.

 

Medio Ambiente cleans the Costa del Sol coastline in Málaga

FCC Medio Ambiente (the Spanish brand for FCC Environment), the company awarded the contract to provide this service, will use eight patrol boats with three support vessels reaching up to six nautical miles. This means that the cleaning work can be done close to or even inside the area used by swimmers.

This action will benefit 9 districts on the Malaga coastline (Benahavís, Benalmádena, Casares, Estepona, Fuengirola, Manilva, Marbella, Mijas and Torremolinos), with a total population of more than half a million inhabitants, rising to 800,000 in summer. Over the course of the summer Málaga province is expected to host around 14 million tourists.

The vessels have been designed specifically to collect floating, semi-floating and submerged waste at shallow depths, as well as seaweed and jellyfish in areas close to the beach and untreated waste on beaches and at ports.

During the working day each vessel will patrol its assigned area, focusing on the areas where the most waste accumulates and on the most popular beaches. The boats are in constant contact with the area supervisors and the relevant authority's coordination and control centre. All crews are equipped with a voice/data communications and GPS location systems, so that the position of each of the vessels can be pinpointed,  allowing any incidents to be resolved quickly.

The service will be based out of local marinas and fishing ports, covering the entire coastline from Torremolinos to Manilva. The cleaning work will be done during the peak tourist season in order to increase the seawater quality and strengthen a sustainable, environment-friendly approach to the management of these spaces.

The vessels are crewed by a professional skipper who, besides being responsible for the sailing aspects, also supervises the mechanisms for operating the collection system.

FCC Medio Ambiente has enhanced the service awarded by offering a further eight vessels in reserve, should they be needed at any time to strengthen the service or deal with any incidents.