Arona loses ‘Blue Flag’ status on all beaches

Arona (Tenerife) is to have its three beaches, Los Cristianos, El Camisón and Las Vistas stripped of their ‘Blue Flag’ status. This is due to the situation regarding the lifeguards for these beaches, which have been on strike, some of the hunger strikes, for the last 10 months due to not being paid for their services.

The Environment Councillor for the City of Arona, Antonio Sosa, acknowledged that this reason these beaches have lost their ‘Blue Flag’ status. He said that the matter of the lifeguards must be solved, by June at the latest, although he does not give details of how this will be solved. “We work with our legal services to see how we can resolve the situation.” he said.

A total of 18 lifeguards claim to have not been paid for a period of 10 months yet still provide a ‘minimum service’ to the three beaches and heavily criticise the local government for the current situation.

The government is considering putting out to tender the contract, for a third time, and has even considered using an NGO to provide the services before the summer season starts.

To add to this situation, is the problem of the umbrella and sunbed service which has not been allocated to any company either.

When rescue problem is the lack of agreement on seasonal services (sunbeds and umbrellas) in Los Cristianos, which is still not awarded, and the Trojan beach in the municipality of Arona.

The ‘Blue Flag’ status is an eco-label selectively granted by the European Federation for Environmental Education (FEE) which in Spain is coordinated by ADEAC (Association of Environmental and Consumer Education). In the Canary Islands is managed in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.