The absence of actions to remedy the lack of sand on the beaches of Sitges has once again outraged the local Gremi d'Hostaleria on the eve of Holy Week. Yesterday the season on the sandy beaches started, including the rescue service, and it did so in a situation that the tourism sector describes as an "emergency", not only on the urban beaches but also on the seafront due to the lack of protection of the sand.
From the Gremi it is stated that "not only do we confirm that there has been no progress in the short term to guarantee a better 2024 beach season, as we evidently feared, but that a series of meetings have taken place and a series of of statements in which the message has been precisely in the opposite direction, that is, not to take any action, thus allowing the already complicated situation of the municipality's urban beaches to worsen."
In some of them, such as the central Bassa Rodona beach, the lack of sand is very notable. The situation has led hotel and restaurant representatives to abandon the Technical Litoral Management Board, considering that “it is empty of content.” The president of the Gremi, Oskar Stöber Blázquez, has told La Vanguardia that “we are fed up after five years without performances on the beaches.” He regrets that there is no project “neither for the present nor for the future.”
The Gremi d'Hostelería de Sitges already requested on September 7 of last year that the mandate of the municipal plenary session be fulfilled to authorize the dumping of sand from the dredging of the municipality's ports to the urban beaches and thus "guarantee “some stabilization of these for the next summer season.” The municipal government is accused of not having acted with sufficient notice. His participation in the Litoral Management Taula was conditioned “to work in the short, medium and long term. The Gremi d'Hostelería denounces that there has been a tendency for years by different administrations to “talk about long-term solutions, which only lead to the commissioning of studies and more studies, without anything materializing, unlike what "It happens in neighboring municipalities, which do carry out survival actions for their beaches in the short term, while they work on stable actions in the medium and long term."
The mayor of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell, says she respects the Gremi's decision to abandon the Litoral Management Board, although she continues to defend it. She states that it was not only created to find solutions to the loss of sand but also to the effects of climate change. And she adds that this table has already produced results, such as the monitoring of Sant Sebastià beach “to see what changes it is undergoing.” She also assures that they are working on a comprehensive project for the Bassa Rodona beach area after meeting with representatives of the Spanish and Catalan governments. The aim is to protect the coastal area and also the promenade. Carbonell recalls that "in no case do we refuse to provide sand to the beaches, but we do not want to make public expenditure that does not last due to the storms that usually occur in May and June." The mayor assures that "this year the beaches are well prepared" and points out that higher administrations advise them to look for long-term sustainable measures "and not put patches that solve nothing."
The beach season will be extended until October 13. Activities such as restaurants, sun loungers, awnings and water sports will be progressively deployed until June. The City Council has extended the contract for the coastal cleaning service with a boat equipped with low-consumption ecological engines. Last summer, 734 kilos of waste were collected.
