Tourist development and wastewater treatment in the Spanish Mediterranean coast: the costa brava case study

Abstract

The Costa Brava (Girona, Spain) is one of the pioneering regions along the Spanish Mediterranean coast in terms of wastewater treatment. Since the 1950s, the water quality in swimming areas has been affected by the ongoing tourist development. However, at the same time, this issue has motivated the implementation of wastewater treatment systems that, otherwise, would have been delayed. With that mission, the Costa Brava Consortium (CCB) was created in 1971. The CCB is a public institution formed by all the municipalities along the coast of Girona, the head of Girona province and the watershed authority (formerly called the Eastern Pyrenees Hydrographical Confederation). Taking a conceptual approach derived from the Political Ecology of Tourism, the aim of this study is to explore the close relationship among the tourism boom, the economic and technologic investments related to wastewater management, and the improvement of environmental quality of the Costa Brava swimming areas.We believe that the tourist sector has forced public administrations to minimize the environmental impact derived from tourist activities. In fact, wastewater treatment has contributed to achieve improved and optimal swimming conditions in beaches, the most valuable resource for sun and sand tourist sector. The increasingly strict environmental regulations issued at European level have an important role in the discursive legitimation of high public expenses. Nevertheless, water-related management costs have been progressively financed by tax-payers, under pretexts of economic crisis or limited public budget. In addition, private capital is considered as the only way to maintain present infrastructures and to invest in new ones.

Application of the European tourism indicator system (ETIS) for sustainable destination management. Lessons from County Clare, Ireland

“…Adequate wastewater treatment systems are critical to guarantee the environmental quality of coastal regions and according to Gabarda-Mallorquí et al (2016) require an actual political commitment by public administration through adequate investment. Nationally across Ireland, raw sewage "still enters the environment untreated each day in 44 urban locations around Ireland" (Kevin O'Sullivan, 2017, Irish Times 24/10/2017).…”

Environmental effects of tourism and its seasonality on Mediterranean islands: the contribution of the Interreg MED BLUEISLANDS project to build up an approach towards sustainable tourism

“…All these events were a great opportunity to meet many other stakeholders, offering great visibility to the BLUEISLANDS project, the related goals, the activities implemented and the results achieved. This is certainly another positive aspect of the project, as effective communication and collaboration among stakeholders are crucial to building up a strategy to foster sustainable tourism, which indeed embraces the environment, social and political aspects, as well as the broader context of sustainable development (Gabarda-Mallorquí et al 2016;Zolfani et al 2015).…”

“…the seasonality of waste generation due to tourism in the Mediterranean area) rarely addressed on such wide scale before. Indeed, although there are places where the tourism sector exerted strong pressures on the public administrations to ensure optimal bathing water quality by properly managing the wastewater treatment processes (Gabarda-Mallorquí et al 2016), in most cases, poor or inefficient wastewater management during the high peak season is still a critical issue to be addressed.…”

What Governance? The Role of Public and Private Stakeholders in Water Supply Management in Mediterranean Coastal Tourist Destinations: The Case of the Costa Brava

“…Indeed, there has even been a reduction in consumption, as demonstrated by the latest statistics from the supply companies, in terms of both high-and low-level supply (2010-the present). Policies aimed at reusing the resource through wastewater treatment plants have also helped in this respect [72]. In the case of tourist areas such as the Costa Brava, where water resources are scarce and disputed, the introduction of water-saving devices in hotels and tourist facilities, the establishment of pricing systems that encourage people to save water, environmental awareness campaigns addressed to tourism businesses and visitors, the use of alternative water resources (such as reclaimed water) and the common management of water services are all fundamental to gradually reducing water consumption and to allowing these destinations to survive and develop into the future [73].…”