Spain may soon have Europe’s largest artificial beach

The facility called, Alovera Beach, will be located 40 kms from Madrid

These days the small municipality of Alovera (in the Castilla La Mancha region) has been making headlines in Spain. News came out that the local town council was about to approve a tender for the construction of what will be Europe’s largest inland beach on its territory – Alovera Beach.

The whole project will consist of a beach complex, which will measure 105,000 m2 and will feature a huge lagoon, as well as a surrounding area of sand. Its idea is to bring the seaside experience closer to the people of Madrid and La Mancha – regions that are quite distant from the multitude of Spanish costas. Alovera is located some 40 kilometres away from the Spanish capital and another 50 from the city of Guadalajara.

Controversial project from an environmental perspective

The resort complex, which will be a megalomaniac version of an outdoor pool, will also feature slides, a water sports and sailing school, sports and entertainment equipment such as zip lines or beach volleyball courts, a restaurant area with beach bars, bars and restaurants. If all goes according to plan developers say that it could be operational in the summer of 2023.

Ecologists, however, have raised their voices in opposition to the planned project with the argument that in an arid area, such as the Spanish interior, its realization would create a shortage of drinking water.

In their defence, the constructors of Alovera Beach have clarified that the volume of water is similar to the annual consumption of a development of 80 homes, but with the difference that the lagoon will only be filled once.

They have also said that it will consume half the amount of water of conventional park irrigation and 40 or 50 times less than the maintenance of a golf course, as well as use 100 times fewer chemicals than normal swimming pools.

As a counterpoint, they have also posited that the development would create 350 direct and indirect jobs and would welcome between 250 and 400 thousand visitors a year basically creating a viable tourist destination where there used to be nothing in the vicinity of a sleepy commuter town. Furthermore, the promise is that Alovera Beach will be surrounded by a natural park in order to encourage biodiversity in the area.