Black flags for Costa Blanca tourist hotspots

Benidorm and the Costa Blanca shamed by ecologists for environmental abuses on the coast

Fencing around construction site at Cala Mosca in Orihuela Costa

Benidorm, Orihuela Costa and Torrevieja were shamed in this year’s Black Flags report by the NGO Ecologístas en Acción, which highlights the most serious (but not all) environmental abuses around the coast of Spain.

Benidorm

Alicante province’s black flag for pollution was awarded to Playa Levante in Benidorm, where the ecologists say lack of investment in infrastructure, overtourism and predatory urban development forced action to stop sewage treatment stations from breaking down.

The authorities used this to justify “controlled” spillages of faecal waste directly into a natural park and nearby beaches.

Moreover, there were no warnings on the beaches or subsequent reports showing the levels of e-coli.
Not only did this cause significant damage and environmental impact on the park and the water quality at the nearest beaches, but also this sets a precedent for sewage spillages to be legal.

Pressure from human activity, especially tourism, is excessive in this municipality, with over 250,000 visits per day.

The essential services are inadequate for so many people, as are the ecosystems, to cope with the amount of rubbish and sewage being generated. Last year Benidorm lost Blue Flag awards for two of its beaches.

The collection and pumping stations (EBAR) which send wastewater to a single treatment plant are not powerful enough and in very bad condition, having had to cope with more than their capacity for decades.

The ecologists note the problem of having an overpopulated “urban monstrosity” full of “often uncivilised” mass tourism right next to the Sierra Gelada natural park.

Inside the park is one of the EBARs and an overflow which spilled raw sewage into the sea for almost a week in 2024 and again in 2025 while it was being repaired.

The spillages in 2025 are estimated to have gone on for two weeks, because they only took place at night and the work had been planned to take one week of working intensively.

The spillages in 2024 were continual and were not authorised by the regional environment department.
They continued until the work was stopped after complaints by Ecologistas en Acción and other organisations but permits were granted this year, albeit with insufficient measures to contain or reduce damage.

The raw sewage from the overflow reached the nearby beaches of Levante and Rincón de Loix.

The ecologists’ proposals to resolve or improve the situation in the short-term are to consult with the experts on the park management committee and establish alternatives to the spillages, even if this involves cutting off mains water to part of the population.

In the mid-term, they suggest restoring and improving protection of the coast and setting real limits to tourism, putting quality and sustainability ahead of quantity.

The ecologists insist that existing services need to be consolidated and improved, to make better use of what has already been constructed.

Orihuela/Torrevieja

The black flag for bad management in Alicante province was awarded to the area comprising Cala Mosca and Cala Ferris, which are adjacent in the north of Orihuela and south of Torrevieja respectively.
The regional government’s so-called simplification law last year “changed for the bad” more than 500 articles and 66 laws which afforded protection for the coast, permitting construction and facilitating speculation up to 100 metres from the shore.

It has also effectively scrapped the previous administration’s coast protection plan (PATIVEL).

Calas Mosca and Ferris have been eyed up for development since many years ago but were protected from being completely built-up, until now, by a traditional livestock trail in the latter, and sensitive flora and fauna and the PATIVEL in the former.

Despite the PATIVEL and legal appeals by civil organisations like the Plataforma Salvemos Cala Mosca and the state roads department, more than half of what used to be the last stretch of pristine coastline in Orihuela is already being built on.

In 2024 the Regional High Court (TSJCV) definitively green-lit a large urbanisation of 2,200 homes, to be built by the ironically named promoter “Playa Salvaje (wild beach) SA Gomendio”.

This project had already been modified because the original affected several areas populated with cat’s head rockrose plants and Tudorella mauretanica snails, but the ecologists dismissed the new plans as "greenwashing".

Aside from these threatened and protected species, the area has great biodiversity, including Aleppo pines, Mediterranean dwarf palms and ocellated lizards, etc. There is also a significant meadow of posidonia seagrass just metres from the shore.

However the area is rife with foreign investments, constructors seeking to expand and relentless apartments and illegal holiday lets.

Both Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa have been characterised by scattershot development and lack of urban planning. If this is now compounded by legal deprotection of spaces that were relatively protected, further damage and destruction like what is already happening in Cala Mosca could only be months away.

If before there were imperfect laws to curtail speculation, now the risk of losing beaches like Cala Mosca and, to a lesser extent, Cala Ferris, is "a terrible reality".

The simplification law removes protection that existed for a large area on both sides of the construction site in Cala Mosca, and for the beaches there and at Cala Ferris.

The line of coastal urbanisations which have destroyed ecosystems and pristine beaches could soon become uninterrupted.

Even the apparently protected area of palm trees and the cattle trail in Cala Ferris could be affected by the interests of constructors as the safeguard zones are eliminated.

The ecologists’ call for a moratorium on new constructions and restoration of the ban on construction near the coast to protect habitats. 

They also insist there should not be any more construction until the infrastructure and services have been improved to meet the needs of the existing glut of buildings

In both cases, the ecologists say investments must be made to prevent more damage to ecosystems, such as in water pipes, wastewater treatment and drains, lighting and electricity, social services (educational, health and care), public transport, infrastructure and green spaces.

Images: Ecologístas en Acción