Marbella’s beaches have an expensive problem

Marbella Town Hall has spent more than €800,000 so far in 2024 to remove 75 tonnes of invasive algae from the beaches.

Councillor, Diego López, who visited the work being carried out in Nueva Andalucía, warned of the, “growing problem caused by the expansion of this species on the coast“, and called on the central government to, “fulfil its responsibilities and help the municipalities to pay for its collection and treatment”.

López reported that the clean-up operation is made up of four bulldozers, three lorries, two pick-up trucks, a tractor with trailer and two beach cleaners. “We are assuming enormous costs for the removal of this waste and its transfer to the treatment plant in Casares”, said the councillor, who added that since 2020 the Town Hall has invested a total of €2 million keeping the beaches free of algae.

The presence of the species ‘Rugulopterix okamurae’, included by the central government at the end of 2020 in the Spanish Catalogue of Invasive Alien Species, is especially affecting the beaches of San Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Banús, Fontanilla and Cabopino, where the algae can exceed one metre in height.