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26/09/2019
Microbiological samples showed poor water quality and presence of fecal bacteria on a day when Badalona residents and visitors thought they were swimming in ‘good’ waters.
On 2/09 Agència Catalana de l'Aigua (ACA) samples showed ‘insufficient’ water quality at Platja del Cristall due to high levels of E. coli (217 cfu/100 ml) and enterococci (267 cfu/100 ml).
These are the fecal bacteria that can result in diarrhea, vomiting, fever, conjunctivitis etc.
According to the tweets we analysed, on 1/09 and 2/09 all Badalona beaches had green flags and water quality was ‘good’.
There was nothing to inform Badalona beach goers of the levels of contamination that day. Badalona residents and visitors unknowingly put their health at risk.
ACA only source of data
ACA only source of data
ACA is the only source of microbiolical data known to us. ACA take samples every 2 weeks, according to a pre-determined schedule. In 2019 ACA beach season lasted 1/06-24/09, samples were taken on Mondays and ACA website updated on Friday.
However, as shown by the 2/09 episode, both ACA and Ajuntament failed to perform their duty of informing the public of water contamination.
Right to know
Right to know
We want Ajuntament de Badalona to immediately start informing the public of all episodes of combined sewage overflow on its beaches.
We want these daily episodes to be tracked and past days’ data to be made available publicly.
We want these episodes to be reported all year round because the risk to public health doesn’t end with the end of the swimming season.
What could have led to insufficient water quality on 2 September?
What could have led to insufficient water quality on 2 September?
We looked at the events before and after ACA sample was taken on 2/09. At best the sequence of events seems strange:
- 27/08: A deleted tweet. Following an episode of rain on the 27th sewage overflowed and contaminated the water. Overflow was confirmed by @PlatgesBadalona in a tweet but quickly deleted (captured by @Whatsup_BDN)
- 27-29/08: Red flags. The only episode of rain in those 3 days with a total of 15.3mm of rain was registered at Badalona Museu, most of it at around 10:30am (meteo.cat)
- 29/08: Sewage overflow without rain: an episode of sewage overflow was captured by @martanago more than 48 hours since the last episode of rain
- 30/08: Cement pillars were discovered at Platja del Cristall and the beach was evacuated
- 31/08: there were no updates from @PlatgesBadalona but @AjBadalona tweeted about the re-opening of Platja del Cristall just after 4pm
- 1/09 and 2/09: all Badalona beaches, including Cristall, raised a green flag
- 2/09: An official sample taken every 2 weeks was taken by ACA. The results showed that water quality on 2/09 was ‘insufficient’, with elevated numbers of Escherichia coli (217 cfu/100 ml) i entorococci (267 cfu/100 ml)
- 2/09: heavy run off captured by @Oriol_RB and others. According to meteo.cat it rained 1.1mm at 4am in Badalona Museu and 12.8mm at 8pm
- 3/09 all Badalona beaches had red flags
Rain on 2/09 from: http://meteo.cat/observacions/xema/dades?codi=WU&dia=2019-09-02T00:00Z
More puzzling events followed
- 3/09: La Vanguardia (via EFE) published a fake story about jellyfish plague and @EmergenciesCat shared the same story (captured in this twitter thread)
- 4/09: speaking to Badalona Matí Councillor Rosa Trenado said news of jellyfish was not true (see tweet by @Whatsup_BDN). However, Ajuntament didn’t deny the news publicly - to our knowledge
We are asking how many times people of Badalona and visitors unknowingly swam in dangerous water this season? We are demanding complete transparency from Ajuntament de Badalona in the interests of public health.
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