Puerto de la Cruz loses patience over sewage issue

Patience has run out at the town hall in Puerto de la Cruz. Mayor Leopoldo Afonso and the relevant councillors are demanding information. The situation has remained unresolved for too long, as has the issue of the cubic metres of sewage that continue to flow daily into the Atlantic Ocean near the popular Playa Jardín.

The beach was once regarded as a flagship project and the most popular beach in the whole region. Now, however, more and more local residents are fed up with it. This is because, even 26 months after the beach was closed for almost a year, many of the problems that led to this drastic measure have still not been resolved.

Residents living near the sewage treatment plant, which is partly to blame for the problems, face several issues at once: on the one hand, more households have been connected to the plant. As capacity increases, so does the odour nuisance. On the other hand, whilst they are calling for a swift solution, the work required to achieve this would clearly have to start an hour earlier than permitted. And this is not the only dilemma.

Puerto de la Cruz calls for a solution to the sewage problem on the beach

Regardless of all these debates, the biggest problem is the current leak in the sewage pipe. The partially treated water flows into the sea just 95 metres from the beach. The pipe is actually just under a kilometre long and is only meant to discharge the water into the Atlantic Ocean at that point. It makes no difference to the environment, but it certainly does to bathers.

This is precisely the solution that Afonso and his advisers are calling for. At the same time, the issue also concerns local residents. They report that construction noise begins at 7 am, even though the city only permits noisy work from 8 am onwards. In an official letter, the relevant department made enquiries with the property developer and the Water Board of Tenerife, which awarded the contract. They also stated that they wished to find out more about the progress of the building work.

An environmental impact assessment should have been carried out before work began. To date, the city has not received this. On the one hand, the city insists on speed; on the other, however, it also demands compliance with municipal and regional regulations. These include, for example, the relocation of trees where they are in the way of the redevelopment work.

Tenerife is struggling to manage its wastewater

Meanwhile, residents of the nearby «Precise» high-rise – the former Maritim Hotel – are calling for the work to proceed more quickly and for a solution to the «unbearable odour nuisance». «It’s almost impossible to air the flats any more,» a resident told our editorial team. The neighbourhood has therefore approached the water board to enquire about solutions, but so far without success.

For decades, Tenerife has been unable to get to grips with the challenges posed by ever-increasing volumes of wastewater. It was only the huge surge in tourism that made visible – and smelly – what had been seeping beneath the surface into the soil and the sea for decades. It is precisely this tourism that is now being threatened by these long-ignored problems, due to headlines about sewage and foul odours whilst swimming. Not just 15 months after the reopening of Playa Jardín, but across the entire archipelago, and particularly on Tenerife.