Sant Sebastià beach in Barcelona is one of the most affected by sand loss Massimiliano Minocri (EL PAÍS)
Barcelona has five kilometers of coastline with nine sandy beaches, the Port Olímpic and the peculiar baths of the Fòrum ―access to the water is via a paved platform―. The last to be added to the catalog in 2008 was that of Llevant. Until then, authorities combated chronic sand loss by digging it up from the seabed. The central government is the one with jurisdiction over the maritime-terrestrial link and no material has been offloaded to offset the effects of the tides since 2010. Since then the beaches have continued to shrink and previously unimaginable images – like the beach bar on Llevant beach at the top of the promenade because it doesn’t fit into its traditional location – are now commonplace.
Barcelona City Council has been warning for years of the critical situation affecting one of its main attractions for residents and tourists. The Ministry for Ecological Transition – which has not responded to questions from this newspaper on the subject – has opened a tender to replace the sand on the beaches in 2024. Municipal techs believe it will be a patch and that the countdown is on until it’s gone. Keep going.
Patricia Giménez, Beach Director of Barcelona’s municipal public company Ciclo del Agua SA (BCASA), is keenly aware of what is happening to the sand on the city’s nine beaches: “Since 2010, we have been conducting two annual studies and calculating the amount of sand that goes on each one Year 50,000 cubic meters of sand lost. A lot of sand was lost in the early years, from 2015 to now we estimate that 17,000 cubic meters are lost annually.” BCASA calculates the development of the beaches using cameras installed in the Mapfre tower. “Beaches where there is less than 25 meters between the shore and the promenade are, in our opinion, increasingly losing their function and we have decided not to build intermediate infrastructure in these areas,” he explains. For this reason, the Llevant beach bar is not located in the sandy area. Neighbors and tourists will be doomed to huddle together as best they can on small strips of sand this year.
In 2010, just as the last load of sand was being laid, Llevant beach was 27,000 square meters, today it is 11,000. It’s not the only beach that’s lost ground. Bogatell had 36,000 square meters in 2010 and today 15,000, Barceloneta had and has the same amount of sand as Bogatell with one peculiarity. “We feed this beach with the sand that remains at the mouth of the Port Olímpic, otherwise it would be even worse,” says Giménez.
The three points where the most sand is lost are the beaches of Llevant, Mar Bella and Sant Sebastià. All this information is shared by the City Council, the Generalitat and the Ministry of Ecological Transition twice a year at the meetings of the Integrated Management Plan for the Coast of Barcelona (PGILB). Some gatherings where the consistory has asked for sand replenishment since 2010.
The Councilor for Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Eloi Badia, assures that the ministry is tendering the works and that the sand replenishment will be noticed in 2024. The sand is already here because, according to Badia itself, it originates just a few meters in the sea, an area that, like the rest, falls under state jurisdiction.
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Year after year, until the charging work is effective, the consistory continues to improvise. “It happens that much of the lost sand is so concentrated in the Port Olímpic estuary that, unless it is dredged, it does not allow ships to enter and exit. This year we managed to get 8,000 cubic meters from it, which allowed us to apply and spread plaster,” warns the beach director. Giménez claims that there is no easy solution to the loss of sand. “The jetties and breakwaters worked and without them Barcelona would hardly have beaches, but it’s not the perfect solution. When one of the last dams was built in 2008, we realized that on the one hand we had lost what we had gained in terms of water quality. However, it is true that on Bogatell beach a piece of the dyke has broken and it would be practical for the Ministry to fix it because it is a place where sand is lost,” he laments.
Badia claims that climate change studies warn that Sant Sebastià beach will be gone in less than 80 years. “Our duty is to act and reverse this trend. On the one hand, the sand needs to be refilled, but the promenade must also be rethought and designed in the form of terraced terraces so that the beach can be used functionally when the sand is gone,” the mayor admits to adjust.
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