Polopos Town Hall, which is responible for the coastal village of La Mamola decided to temporarily close the Playa de Castillo de Baños because of E-Coli in the seawater.

Inspectors from the Southern Health District had been taking samples of seawater, which is a routine procedure, when they came across traces of this kind of bacteria, which lives in the intestines of humans and animals and is frequently found in seawater off beaches.

Most E. coli (Escherichia coli) strains are harmless, but some serotypes (EPEC, ETEC etc.) can cause serious food poisoning in their hosts, and are occasionally responsible for food-contamination incidents that lead to product recalls.

The sample, which is above the acceptable levels, was taken more or less in front of the camping, for which reason the Health District has urged the Town Hall to find out what has caused this anomaly.

In the meantime, the Town Hall, has ordered the red flag to fly to indicated that the water is not safe for bathing.

Editorial comment: readers might remember a few years back when a German state prohibited the importation of cucumbers from the Costa Tropical alleging the presence of E-coli bacteria in the said produce – over 50 people had died from this outbreak. However, it turned out that it actually came from German organic produce and had nothing to do with this area – the damage had been done and no apology was issued.

(News: La Mamola, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)