"A mountain of debris..."

Most of us can visualize the extremely low-lying land bridge separating the Mediterranean from Mar Menor in the province of Murcia, called La Manga. It is 24 kilometres long and from 200 to 1.500 metres wide, and thousands of houses, apartments and hotel rooms have been built in its sands over the last 40 years.

José Fernandez Pérez, general director for the “Costas”, the body in the Spanish administration controlling and administrating the coastal areas, declared last month, at a conference organised by the foundation Bioversidad about the effects of the climate changes in the coastal areas of Spain:

“In 30 years La Manga will be a mountain of debrise”

The experts estimate that the sea will intrude up to 70 metres inland in certain coastal areas, especially in Galicia and the northern part of the Canary islands, but specially on beaches with fine sands, as the Atlantic coast and the Balearic islands. It is expected that the coast line will change on Costa Brava, the Balearics and the southern part of the Canaries.

Many constructions made along the coast will become obsolete due to the increase in the sea level. The experts point especially to the sea shore from Malaga to Algeciras.

The general director for the Costa concluded:

“If one constructed from one day to another all that is planned to be urbanized on the coast, we shall despair…” He proposed a kind of moratorium to avoid a new permanent development along the Spanish coasts.