The Blue Flag certificate is the award given to beaches that meet qualitative and environmental requirements around the world. In addition to a quality certificate, the Blue Flag has become a recognized symbol by millions of users of beaches and ports in more than 50 countries as a tourist quality standard.
The necessary requirements that a beach must meet to obtain the certificate are divided into four sections: environmental information and education, water quality, environmental management, and safety and services.
Requirements to archievethe Blue Flag
Information and Environmental Education
- There must be panels on Blue Flag beaches with information about the beach, the coastal ecosystems and, where appropriate, about nearby protected natural spaces, together with a code of conduct for these spaces.
- The municipality must organize at least five environmental education activities per year. On a voluntary and complementary basis, Bandera Azul promotes and coordinates Senderos Azules and Centros Azules.
Water Quality
- The quality of bathing water on the beach, during the previous bathing season, must be excellent, in all its sampling points, in accordance with the Bathing Water Quality Directive.
- A number of periodic water samples must be officially taken to determine this quality.
- Additionally, it must comply with the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.
Environmental Management
- The beach must comply with environmental legislation, especially the Coastal Law, and must be clean and have adequate waste management, including the selective collection of containers, paper, glass, etc.
- The beach must have public restrooms.
- Urban beaches and/or at least one of the Blue Flag beaches in the municipality must have one adapted for people with disabilities.
Security and Services
- Beaches must have easy and safe access. In addition, urban beaches must be accessible to people with disabilities.
- There must be a first aid team, as well as an adequate human team and lifeguard material.
In more detail, within the Security and Services section, the mandatory and recommended criteria to obtain the Blue Flag appear:
- Effective communication system (preferably station or radio transmitter)
- Fixed public address system, megaphone or drone with loudspeakers, with messages already prepared for communication.
Broadly speaking, these are the criteria required to obtain the Blue Flag certificate. In another article we will publish the detailed criteria, which specifies the obligation to offer public address services to users, among other services to take into account.
Links interests
- This is the list of beaches that have achieved the Blue Flag award for this 2022 season
