It happens almost every year, we are told by the Coasts Department, which is in charge of care and maintenance on all our beaches. Sand regeneration is the only answer, and the sand on most beaches had been replaced, as promised, in time for Holy Week. Other beaches are still being worked on, these including the beaches in Guadalmar, Algarrobo and La Bajandilla.

There are no definitive solutions to the problem of sand loss on beaches, the authorities keep telling us, and the battle each springtime to regenerate the beaches is simply part of a never-ending war against nature. As ángel González, head of the Coasts Department, reminds us, a beach is a living entity in a state of constant change. “The sea moves the sand from one beach to another, and it is not done for our convenience,” he says.

Getting the right sand

Most of the sand used to replace that lost by storms in this province comes from river beds, although a great deal of sand is also taken from building sites on sandy ground and large infrastructure works, such as the new metro system being built in city of Malaga. A careful analysis is always made of the sand before it is sent on to the beaches, to ensure a similarity with the sand already there.

The sand is quite different on different beaches in the province. “The sand on the beaches in the western part of the Costa del Sol is mainly silica, like the sand in the Valencia region, while the sand on the eastern Costa del Sol is more brittle, so we must wait two or three seasons for the dust it contains to be washed away by the action of the water,” says Félix Sánchez, head of the service section of the Coasts Department.

To get the sand from the rivers, the Coasts Department works in co-operation with the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin Authority, which controls the level of sedimentation in the rivers of the province of Malaga and checks its compatibility with beach sand. In fact, taking sand from the river beds fulfils two functions: on the one hand, it maintains the beaches in prime condition for tourism, while at the same time cleaning the river beds of dirt and silt, maintaining flow and preventing flooding during heavy rains. The reservoirs are also good depositories of sand.

Helping nature

In short, we are told by Félix Sánchez, this is a question of doing the work that nature cannot do, due to excess building and the construction of reservoirs. “The water carried by the rivers causes erosion, and this causes sand to be deposited at river mouths, to be carried onto the beaches over time. And this is not happening as much these days,” he adds. The biggest enemy of nature in this respect is excess building work, with more artificial barriers to prevent nature from doing a job it has been doing for many thousands of years.

The sand is taken from the river beds by excavator, and it is allowed dry. Then a giant sieve separates the dirt from the sand, the fine sand then being sent on to the beaches. It is taken there by lorry, and the rest of the sand is put back in the river.

Medium-term solutions

In many cases, the sand is not brought directly to the beaches, but stored in facilities owned by the Coasts Department in the La Térmica area of Malaga City. When sand is needed urgently for any beach, it generally comes from this storage facility.

A total of 271,400 cubic metres of sand was needed to replace that lost in the last storms in Malaga province, and the entire operation cost more than 700,000 euros. Transport costs clearly depend on how far the sand has to be transported, but the Coasts Department assures us that this is the most cost-effective means of getting river sand to beaches. It has been suggested by some experts that the sand should be imported from neighbouring countries like Morocco, but this would cost a great deal more.

The Coasts Department, on the advice of the Environment Ministry, does not want to build bigger sea barriers along the coast to keep the sand on the beaches. “The situation changes from year to year, and no single solution would apply in all cases. We have to analyse each case in turn to find the best solution, and the building of a sea wall can turn out to be useful or an ecological disaster,” says ángel González. In some cases, as in La Caleta in Malaga, plans are going ahead to build such a wall. This may or may not help matters, but in any case, sand will continue to be lost from our beaches, and we will have to continually regenerate them.

Costas plans to take sand from the sea bottom in La Cala de Mijas

The Coasts Department plans to begin taking sand from the sea bed itself over the coming weeks. According to the experts, the sand will be dredged from an area of the sea floor that has excess sand. The area in question is close to La Cala de Mijas, and studies carried out over a period of time show that there is no marine flora or fauna in this sandy underwater area. The first step is to publish the plans publicly, and a period of time is then set aside for objections to the plan. Expected to object are some environmental groups, non-government organisations and some local politicians. The sand will be loaded into boats to be brought to the beaches in need of it. This sand is of the highest quality, and is, of course, compatible with the sand already on the beaches in the area. But ángel González, head of the Coasts Department, insists that this process will not replace the taking of sand from the river beds. The sea bed, he says, is simply another source of high-quality sand.