I went down to Playa Granada yesterday morning to see for myself what the damage was like to the beach at the western end. There was a lot.

Fortunately, the Central Government, with the speed of a striking sloth and the reactions of a dead rattle snake, has finally put the breakwater project out to tender.

Those companies interested have until the 19th of March (San José) to enter their bid, which means that nothing is going to happen this side of Easter, nor summer, as the completion time is eight months, but algo es algo, as the Spanish say.

The construction of the breakwater or groyne at the Punta del Santo on the said beach has a budget of seven and a half million euros and should improve a 5km stretch of beach from the Guadalfeo river mouth to Motril Port.

The groyne will have a length 247 metres with the first 179 metres reaching out to sea. To achieve this the construction company will have to bring in 30,000 cubic metres of rocks and boulders from a nearby quarry, putting it in place using two JCBs and a dumper truck.

They will also have to truck in 711,362 cubic metres of sand leaving the beach with a depth of 200 lineal metres next to the groyne but will taper off towards Salobreña.

That’s the official line but having examined the shelf in the beach what comes to notice is that buried about half way down the shelf are lengths of black plastic, which must have come in with the last beach regeneration effort.

There’s also a 2-inch diameter (5cm) grey, plastic pipe that has been uncovered by the waves just below the AWAK beach bar and leading out into the surf. It’s not clear where it runs from nor what it carries.

(News/Noticias: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)