The environment and nature

THE ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE

The environmental quality of the province of Malaga, is in general, one of the main enforcements which each time has a higher value and greater relevance for the economic and social future. The fruits of this reality and the permanent conscience to improve even more all that which has an effect on the quality of life, has been and is, the politic developed by the Civil service, in this case the Junta de Andalucía, the county council and the town hall, in favour of the recuperation and conservation of the ecological values as much on the coast as inland by means of diverse plans of action as regards to sanitation and the elimination of urban solid waste, with the concentration, in a few places of the province, of modern urban waste processing plants, which until recently were scattered and uncontrolled. This politic has meant, in principle, the elimination of contaminating sources, smells, fumes, etc., and what the experts call aesthetic pollution, that is, the existence of rubbish tips near communication ways, and at the entrance to the towns.

But this environmental politic has been accentuated, concerning the complete cycling of water: the supply and sanitising of residual waters with the aim of conserving such a relevant asset on the Malaga coast as is the sea water, the objective in which the public administrations have inverted various tens of thousands of millions pesetas for the six purifying plants which are working between Estepona and Malaga capital, as well as for the second drinkable water pipe which guarantees its supply. In addition to these projects there are the investments which are now being used - spring and summer of 1995 - for the collection of new hydric resources and channelling for distributing the water element to areas where there is none or it is scarce. The Committee, with more than three hundred million, as well as the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry of Public Works have set aside near five thousand million for this plan of hydrologic impact faced with the prolonged drought suffered by the southern half of Spain during the first lustrum of the 90’s.

Another of the rising tourist values, as well as the environment, is the existence of large natural spaces which are protected by any of the existent legal figures. The natural richness of the province not only constitutes a demand but is also a new tourist offer with a great future if its use and conservation is formed with harmony. In this aspect, the tourism in contact with nature also has a great future in Malaga.