Right on cue, the nasty stain just off the beaches (until it's washed up) has returned, just as the summer starts.

People who turned up on Sunday morning to spend the day on Playa de La Guardia had to share the morning with this yearly visitor.

Just like every other summer, the Guardia Civil’s Seprona has been informed who will carry out the same investigation and probably draw the same blank, which is not only depressing but also unsurprising.

However, the Motril sewage collector, that receives discharges from its many urbanisations could be related with this, they consider, it appears, but not anything definite.

Last year, the Aula del Mar, belonging to the University of Granada, said that an excess of ‘nutrients’ reach the sea and cause an explosion of algae and aquatic-plant life. In other words, we’re causing the reaction.

The last time that the Junta’s Health Board checked the quality of the sea water of our beaches was on the 30th of June; they took 38 samples from 38 different places in 24 bathing areas along the Costa Tropical. They do this every 15 days, so the next one will be the 15th of July.

The Town Hall is far from happy, of course, because it is quite literally a stain on the town’s tourist-destination reputation.

So, is there anybody who is 100% sure where it is coming from? Well, the ecologist organisation, Ecologistas en Acción, considers that they do know: defective sewage treatment, “Each summer coincides with this appearance on the coast because the Motril sewage-treatment plant has insufficient capacity to deal with the summer, visitor surge – it’s designed for a fixed population, so when it’s overloaded, they open up the sluices and let it flow into the sea.”

This ecologist group, has set up a programme to check on all the sewage outlets along the coast, beginning in June with a team of 20 volunteer divers; four for each outlet (there are seven between Motril and La Caleta de Salobreña). They’re all old and in disuse but they have not been sealed correctly, according the ecologists.

“The [two] Town Halls can’t blame neighbouring municipalities such as Nerja because this Axarquía municipality’s sewage-treatment plant is already online and working, concluded Ecologistas en Acción.

Editorial comment: now, this is no coincidence, not even a Gothic Serendipity one. Despite what the ecologists say, for me personally, it is almost as if somebody empties their sewage directly into the sea, via a secret discharge pipe, to be prepared for scores of guests over the coming summer weeks, and I am not pointing a finger (for obvious reasons) but just pondering in print.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)