Costa Tropical Suffering From Urban Speculation

The Costa Tropical, in the province of Granada, is suffering from too much construction says Greenpeace. According to the environmental group, towns and villages such as Almuñecar, Salobreña and Motril are the most worrying examples of such "urban speculation".

Greenpeace cites Almuñecar as being the worst case. It currently has a population of 23,000 but plans have been approved to build a staggering 28,000 new homes in this relatively small town. I’ll say that again…. 28,000! On top of this a further 6,000 new hotel rooms, 4 golf courses and 2 marinas have also been approved.

Just what the current residents need!

I guess there are two main impacts as a consequence of this. Firstly, the human impact: a potentially large influx of European house buyers who may not contribute to the culture of these developing towns. Secondly, the environmental impact: the destruction of land and subsequent disappearance of natural space, increased requirement for fresh water (not to mention water for nice greens to putt on) and increased problems with sewage and pollution and its effect on wildlife, agriculture and fishing.

I’m no Luddite (I’m certainly not against development to improve depressed areas), but I suspect that the approval of plans for mass development such as this has little to do with improving a depressed area and more to do with lining the (possibly already fat) pockets of one or two individuals….. who I suspect do not live in towns under proposal for development.