Final report

Third year secondary students of Escolàpies school in Gandia are going to address the issue of the l'Ahuir beach that is currently a very polemical subject in Gandia. An example of the importance of this issue is the amount of media interest being shown, with articles and reports appearing on an almost daily basis. Another example of the social importance is that the issue was a subject of satirical critiques in the recent Fallas.

Why this subject? We are looking into this issue because not only is it currently very topical in our region, it has also been considered important by politicians from higher up the political scale; a good example being the recent declarations by the former minister Cristina Narbona, these being only the latest in the important debate that is taking place. The beach is also very important for tourism in Gandia, something that has been highlighted by the majority of the people interviewed for our project. One of the political parties in the town hall of Gandia COMPROMIS, has presented a parliamentary initiative in the Spanish parliament that will propose the purchase of the beach by the central government

The l'Ahuir beach is one of the few virgin beaches left on the Valencian Mediterranean coast. This affirmation is supported by all the interviewees, the images we have in the blog and anyone who visits the beach. Recently, the municipal government in Gandia has started a debate about the possible development of the beach, as was explained to us by the coordinator of the municipal government, Sr.Victor Soler.

This has opened the debate about whether, and under which conditions, this development should take place. We have made this study in order to understand things more clearly and to see how European legislation might affect the decisions taken. For this we have interviewed university professors such as Jesús Vilaplana or Joan Cambrils.

Other important considerations were the facts and legal situation relating to the urban development of the beach. To obtain this information we asked the majority of the interviewees and in addition we spoke with the respected expert in urban planning, Sr. Rafael Durà. In our investigation we have not overlooked the proposals put forward in the competition of ideas, but in addition to these we have had the assistance of the well-known engineer Sr. Bernardino Montserrat