El Reducto beach remains closed for swimming due to fecal contamination following the latest tests carried out by Public Health this Tuesday, which continue to be positive. In total, the beach has been closed for five weeks.
As you may recall, the City Council banned swimming on October 15, but reopened it on the 16th. However, it was closed again after water tests detected fecal discharge once more.
The Arrecife City Council, the Lanzarote Water Consortium, and the company holding the concession for the island's integral water cycle, Canal Gestión, have agreed to inspect the discharge points into the sea to detect the leak that is contaminating El Reducto beach with fecal matter
To this end, two weeks ago, trenches were opened in different parts of the beach with the aim of carrying out analyses at these two points and confirming whether the leaks are occurring from Fred Olsen Avenue and not from the pipelines of Punta del Camello.
However, the institutions cannot pinpoint the origin of these fecal waters. According to Domingo Cejas, Minister of Water, in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote last week, a total of four different points were analyzed over the weekend, and all tested negative for fecal water contamination.
To work on locating the leaks, the counselor announced that they would employ a robotic camera to analyze the area's sanitation networks to pinpoint the leaks, while in parallel they will dig new trenches and take samples in the sand, different from those taken in recent days.
A spillway, allegedly responsible for the contamination
According to the City Council's initial statement, the appearance of spills occurred in the Emisario area, at Punta del Camello, but the Water Consortium attributes the fecal contamination in El Reducto **to leaks from an overflow**.Domingo Cejas, Water Councilor, explained that the discharge point causing **high levels of the E.Coli bacteria**, an organism present in the human intestine and other warm-blooded living beings that can cause diarrhea and infections, is the one located in front of the Diamar hotel, on Fred Olsen Avenue.
