News that Galway City has retained Blue Flag status for Salthill and Silverstrand beaches, is a testament to good management of the beaches by Galway City Council, Cllr Niall Murphy has said.
Speaking at the award ceremony Cllr. Niall Murphy remarked that the blue flags are a vital part of presenting Galway as an attractive tourist destination.
“It covers many areas of beach management. But I have been calling for national changes to the criteria to take into account that swimmers are in the sea year-round. Currently the testing is only during the summer bathing season which is June 1 to September 15.
“Local authorities are reluctant to test during winter. Due to higher rainfall and other environmental factors, the winter results are always worse than summer.
“If Galway decided to test the water year-round, our results would look bad in comparison to other Blue Flag destinations. For this reason I have been calling for the national criteria to be changed so that every beach is tested in winter.
“The required quality of the water for Blue Flag status may have to be different from summer measurements from winter. At least this would allow swimmers to have access to water quality information, while maintaining a consistent standard to be met by Blue Flag beaches,” he said.
Cllr Murphy added that managing sea water quality has been challenging as Galway’s population grows.
“It is important that a testing regime is in place that is robust enough that issues can be detected and acted upon,” he said.
