Mogán Town Council, on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria, have been working on a project for what they intend to be a reorganisation of the municipality’s beaches, once recreational use is allowed again, that is, sunbathing and bathing in the sea. The council has devised a system of social distancing sectors to help ensure that crowds cannot form on the beaches, therefore, maintaining space between beach users so that a beach day can be enjoyed comfortably and within the health guidelines under the current precautions being taken to tackle COVID-19.

The Canary Islands Government Coastal Management Service has taken an interest in learning about the proposals from the Mogán town hall, according to a statement on the council’s website, in order to control capacity on the popular tourist beaches of the municipality, in the hope that they may be able to incorporate the ideas of the local administration into a document the service is preparing regarding management of the beaches for implementation once we settle into the so-called ‘new normality’, or whenever such measures may be authorised by the Spanish State.

Mogán’s Town Hall proposes to divide their beaches into four sectors: double hammocks; simple hammocks; towel areas for up to two people; and towel areas for families.

The hammock pitches and the towel areas are for those who come alone or in the company of up to one other person, and would, in turn, be delimited in spaces of 2.5 m X 2.5 m. Each family space would extend to 5 m X 2.5 m on a corresponding plot.

The sectors would be properly marked and between these there would be large corridors to facilitate access to the sea. Each space would be limited with wooden posts and rope, and a distance of 2 meters would be established between each of them.

Mayor of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, has communicated to the Government of the Canary Islands that “it must take into account the different idiosyncrasies and specificities of the municipalities of the archipelago and coastline, and therefore be flexible in the face of the regulations to be applied”. She points out that the Mogán Municipal Council’s proposal “has been designed according to the typology of Mogán’s beaches” and says that, to ensure social distancing, games with rackets, soccer, volleyball, frisbies and other similar activities will, for the moment, be prohibited.

Sand oxygenation

The Mogán Council, in addition to their usual beach cleaning tasks, will also take advantage of the current lack of use of the beaches to carry out “oxygenation” work on the sands, an action that consists of churning the beach sands to achieve a “more intense cleaning, especially at the points where the sea does not reach.”

Starting this coming Monday, “oxygenation” will begin at Taurito beach and is scheduled to take place at Playa del Cura, Patalavaca and the main Arguineguín beach of Las Marañuelas.

Source: Mogán Ayuntamiento