Valladolid: Public Health is suspicious that Las Moreras may be suitable for swimming this summer

But conflicts aside. Can we expect to be able to swim with health guarantees this summer in Las Moreras? Well, lifting the ban is not that easy and has its demands. They are explained by the general director of Public Health of Castilla y León, Sonia Tamames Gómez.

«First of all – he highlights – the conflict generated is absolutely artificial because what the current Government (the PP with Jesús Julio Carnero as mayor) has done could have been done by the previous one (the PSOE of ÓscarPuente). It is about conveying to the health authorities the need to deregister the usual sampling point where samples are taken for analysis because it does not correspond to the mass of sand and that these structural modifications perfectly justify this deregistration and requesting to register new one. The point that this City Council requested was in a place where we considered that it was not appropriate because neither an influx of significant bathers was foreseen nor, above all, high pollution because a place had been chosen in the area of ​​the fishing area and what we have done is assign a sampling point within the sandy area but in an area located in front of the showers, in the lower third of the beach, a place that we believe reflects much better where people could bathe in summer if a positive history is generated. What we are going to start doing is tracking at that point and, if we are able to guarantee that the water is suitable enough for bathing, of sufficient quality, it will be authorized, which the City Council has to request because right now it is still weighing “a resolution that urges the City Council to prohibit bathing in Las Moreras.”

As for how many analyzes water needs to be considered quality and suitable, there are no fixed rules, a legally established number. Public Health sources explain that about fifteen days before the opening of the season – which runs from June 15 to September 15 – the first sample is taken, which is not especially significant but rather a beginning, a starting point, “a zero point”. Then every week, as usual, it is measured and it is not the same that in each sample the result is only sufficient and of very good quality. In any case, several quality analyzes must be added, without fluctuations, and the decision will depend on their results. The same sources indicate that the Pisuerga is “a very unstable river. You can measure today and it is correct and tomorrow it stops being correct and since this is health and guarantees it has to have a clear path of good quality. This means that the lifting of the bathing ban could be delayed well into the summer or bathing may not be allowed in this early summer season. Although good, or better, results would open doors to its suitability for the river in Las Moreras for future years. Public Health does not hide its suspicion that this imminent 2024 season may have a ‘Fit’. He is quite suspicious of it.

In short, one or two positive analyzes do not presuppose a long season of quality, “the water is very unstable and the risks should not be assumed. It has to be safe,” adds Tamames.

And when it opens to the bathroom, it must be physically delimited, clearly marking the bathing area.

The process is actually simple and perfectly regulated, the General Directorate of Public Health of the Board determines the quality of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, swamps… to be able to bathe without health problems and it is the town councils that must maintain purification point and controlled pollution to declare that the water allows bathing without problems. The local Administration requests every year to enter the official census of bathrooms to access and have the evaluation of the health authorities. An accumulation of ‘insufficient’ results in the permanent prohibition of the bathroom and that it is not classified again in any other way until the crisis of contamination by intestinal enterococci and eschertichia coli is overcome, which are the microbiological analyzes carried out in these control routines together with the visual inspection. In short, sewage and other contaminants and poor purification are the key.

In the surroundings of the river, the area in which the sample was traditionally taken coincides with the boats, including that of the Leyenda del Pisuerga, and with an accumulation of aquatic birds that have been increasing in recent years and causing great pollution. fecal. A change due to structural modifications is perfectly legal, it is not the first time. Precisely the only other bathing space in the official census of Valladolid, that of the Duero River in Quintanilla de Onísimo, which also has insufficient quality, required such a change in 2022 because “the area does not meet the hygiene and safety conditions due to structural changes that “make its use for recreational purposes unviable.”