SPAIN does not have the infrastructure or water resources to cope with a building spree of seaside resorts, environmentalists said yesterday. Last year alone, permission was granted to build 768,000 dwellings on the coast, 58 new golf courses and 27 leisure marinas.

There were 88 serious incidents of water contamination. In addition to the threat to public health, the construction boom threatens habitats and wildlife, environmentalists say.

In the past year, 22 million square metres of land previously reserved for rustic use have been redesignated for building.

There are already 44,900 illegal buildings on the costas, Greenpeace said in a report.

“They are developing the last stretches of unspoilt coast,” said Juan López de Uralde, the head of Greenpeace in Spain, which noted that unbridled development was being pursued despite the apparent lack of demand from the tourist industry.

“Excessive urban development is an attack against the environment,” María José Caballero, responsible for the report, said. “In the end it goes against tourism because the coast becomes overcrowded. Quality tourism looks for natural spaces and places which are quiet.”

The report showed that while Spain’s population rose by 5 per cent between 1990 and 2000, urban development, mainly on the coast, increased by 25.4 per cent. Yet the profitability of at least 30 per cent of hotels on the costas fell in the past year for lack of demand.

Many developers now build golf courses to cater for what is still seen as a booming market.

“This does not benefit tourism (or) create a sustainable economic model since the consumption of land and water is far greater than the benefits to society,” Greenpeace said.

An unspoilt stretch of Mediterranean coast, the Natural Park of Cape Gata-Níjar in Almeria, is being devastated by a 20-storey hotel being built down to the sea. The regional government says it is legal.

The Valencia region is now so overcrowded that developers are moving inland. The so-called “Land Grab” law has allowed unscrupulous builders to team up with corrupt councillors to obtain land for building.

Cristina Narbona, the Environment Minister, has said that more will be done to protect the coast. So far, Greenpeace notes, nothing has happened.

COASTAL COSTS

• The Ministry of Environment gave warning that developing marinas on the Cantabrian coast will damage ecosystems
  
  
• Overdevelopment without adequate sewage treatment facilities has caused the European Commission to initiate sanctions against Spain
  
  
• There are now 293 golf courses — the majority in coastal regions. Within a decade there will be 500
  
  
• In the summer of 2004 Spain received five million fewer tourists than in the same period of 2002

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