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Beaches that separate families from groups of friends, beaches with various civic informants, beaches with limited capacity ... Municipalities such as those on the Costa Brava have implemented various measures to try to offer a safe bathing season. But what about the municipalities of the interior where the rivers, the pools and the waterfalls are the alternative to the heat wave? How do you face a summer conditioned by the Covid-19 pandemic?

The Banyoles City Council , which regulates bathing in the authorized areas of the lake, has decided to restrict and limit activity. Some of the measures adopted are delimiting the swimming area (which is about 30 meters from the shore) with buoys, limiting the capacity for 90 people for the first time, reinforcing the surveillance, rescue and life-saving service, or establishing a single schedule opening for the entire summer season unlike other years.

However, and beyond looking for alternatives to guarantee the safety of the residents and foreigners who during this summer choose to cool off in fresh and untreated water - in which, unlike seawater and swimming pools, the survival of the Coronavirus may be higher, according to a report by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) -, some municipalities in Girona have directly chosen to ban bathing in their rivers, pools and streams.

Among them, that of Campdevànol , which has announced that it will close the accesses to the pools in the Torrent de la Cabana area, since it considers that it will not be able to guarantee the safety of visitors or comply with the distances and rules of the protocols against Covid-19.

According to municipal sources -and while waiting to meet with the different parties involved, since the Torrent de la Cabana area has five owners-, some of the measures that the Consistory is considering to avoid the incursions of bathers are hiring vigilantes and imposing sanctions between 600 and 1,000 euros for accessing a prohibited space without permission.

In fact, it is not the first time that Campdevànol has shielded its aquatic sites. During the last years, the City Council had limited the capacity to 600 people a day and established a rate of between five and eight euros for visitors with the aim of avoiding incivism and overcrowding during the summer, while between 2015 and 2017 it chose for totally prohibiting bathing to, like this summer, give a respite to the fauna and flora of the natural spaces of the town.

"Maintaining the land that nature had recovered during these months of confinement and avoiding possible contagions are the reasons that have led us to prohibit bathing and contact with water from rivers, gorges and streams in the municipality," added Mayor Cornellà de Terri, Salvador Coll.

"The decision," continues the mayor, "has been made after detecting groups of young people who met at points of the Terri river and Gorga Blava and who, in addition to making large bottles and leaving all kinds of dirt, also did not maintain the distances of nor did they respect the hygiene measures recommended by the authorities. "

The intention, Coll concludes, is to maintain the ban throughout the summer "although the Catalan Water Agency allows bathing in fresh water once we reach Phase 3 of the unconfinement."

Another example is that of Les Llosses , a small town crossed by six kilometers of the Merlès stream and that during the summer it concentrates in one day up to a thousand people willing to cool off in its waters. “This year, given the exceptional situation of the coronavirus, we have taken more measures than in previous years to control the main accesses and the influx of people. For example, to enforce hygienic-sanitary measures we will contract a rural surveillance service for the first time and we will enable a new parking lot to control the capacity, which together with the one we already have will allow a maximum of twenty cars to park, "explains the mayor of the municipality, Andreu Llimòs , who clarifies that the new measures have been agreed and will be applied by the rest of the towns in the interior of Barcelona, ​​through which the Merlès stream also runs.

Another of the municipalities of the interior of Girona that has also chosen to intensify the control of its aquatic spaces before the Covid-19 is Les Planes d'Hostoles , where in the last two years, and in the face of the massification of its natural spaces, the City Council already hired two guards. "This summer we plan to multiply by three the number of security guards, limit the length of stay and capacity to 200 people per day and impose an access rate that has yet to be determined," explains the mayor of the municipality, Eduard Llorà.

«Will it be difficult to close all the points of entry to the river and pools? Yes, but from the City Council we are aware that we cannot allow the crowds of previous years because we have to ensure the health of neighbors and visitors, and protect the environment, "adds the mayor.

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  • Girona
  • Barcelona
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Lack of confidence
  • Descaled
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