Ricardo Haroun warns that the decline in the quality of the Canary Islands’ coastal waters affects not only marine habitats but also the health of bathers, and he therefore urges the relevant public authorities to promote, “as a matter of urgency”, more effective management models
He made this clear in his speech at the First Regional Meeting of the Scientific Councils of the Canary Islands’ Biosphere Reserves, held recently in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), where one of the key topics was precisely the concern over the loss of biodiversity, particularly in the marine environment
The director of the ECOAQUA University Institute at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and researcher with the Biodiversity and Conservation (BIOCON) group, Ricardo Haroun, warns of the “serious consequences of sewage and brine discharges on the marine fauna and flora of the islands” in the Canary Islands archipelago and urges the relevant authorities to promote, “as a matter of urgency”, management models that are “more effective and sustainable over time”.
In his view, the decline in the quality of the Canary Islands’ coastal waters “not only affects biodiversity and the benefits provided by marine habitats”, but also “may have consequences for the health of bathers, both locals and the many tourists who use our coastline”; he therefore considers it “urgent” to put this issue on the political agenda.
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Photograph of Ricardo Haroun, director of ECOAQUA.
This was an issue that Haroun highlighted whilst participating as a representative of the Scientific Council of the Gran Canaria Biosphere Reserve at the First Regional Meeting of the Scientific Councils of the Canary Islands’ Biosphere Reserves, held recently in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), organised by the Canary Islands Government’s Canary Islands Network of Biosphere Reserves (RCRB), where one of the key issues was precisely the widespread concern over biodiversity loss, particularly in the marine environment.
“Ineffective” management
At this important meeting to exchange experiences across different levels of management, representatives of the Scientific Councils of the seven Canary Islands Biosphere Reserves, together with technical staff from these reserves and representatives of the regional and island governments, were able to share reflections, experiences and proposals on the main challenges facing the Reserves in the current regional context. In this context, issues relating to the “ineffective” management of wastewater were addressed, “exacerbated by the continuous increase in brine discharges from various types of desalination plants”.
For the director of ECOAQUA, amongst the challenges of environmental management, the treatment of wastewater and, in parallel, of brine, is a “cross-cutting issue” that “needs to be brought immediately into the public spotlight in order to secure a commitment from our decision-makers and politicians to tackle this problem diligently sooner rather than later”.
“Increasingly,” he argues, “and with no effective control or mitigation mechanisms in sight, there are discharges of wastewater – and sometimes industrial effluent as well – that have not been properly treated.”
At the same time, “we are also seeing an increase in brine discharges from desalination plants, which are generating ever-greater volumes along the Canary Islands’ coastline. All these discharges, some legal and others illegal, are causing serious environmental impacts, including the loss of biodiversity and iconic habitats such as seagrass beds”.
Disappearance of seagrass beds
Haroun states that “a significant proportion of our historic seagrass beds have disappeared in recent decades as a result of the impacts caused by sewage discharges and, more recently, by the increase in brine discharges from coastal desalination plants”.
“These seagrass beds,” he asserts, “like other benthic vegetation habitats, serve as breeding grounds and refuges for many marine species, some of which are of commercial interest to small-scale fisheries.”
File photo of seagrass beds off the coast of Gran Canaria. Photo: Francisco Otero-Ferrer.
It is in this context, he points out, “that it is becoming urgent for the relevant Canarian authorities to develop proposals and contribute to the design of measures that will reduce environmental impacts, moving towards more sustainable and resilient environmental management models”.
To improve the current situation regarding wastewater management and brine discharges, the researcher asserts, “there are suitable and innovative technical solutions which, at the same time, can help to create ‘blue jobs’ on the islands themselves. Furthermore, there are funds, from both European programmes and private capital, that would enable these technological transformations to be carried out, thereby mitigating and even completely eliminating discharges into the sea”.
“The quality of coastal waters is not only a right of Canarian residents, but also the foundation of a healthy ecosystem and of the tourist image that many people experience during their stay in the Canary Islands”, concludes Ricardo Haroun.