No 924 Monday 20th - Sunday 26th June 2022
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E C O N O M I C I M PA C T O F M A R MENOR POLLUTION REVEALED
The consequences of the environmental deterioration of the Mar Menor in economic activities include the loss of tourists to other coastal areas, the reduction in the value of homes and the increase in the failure of local business, according to a study from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT). For the thesis, carried out by Dr. Genoveva Aparicio, satellite images have been used to correlate chlorophyll levels with the evolution of tourism and the results of companies, from various sectors, located around the salty lagoon, according to the report. The results show that when water pollution worsens, coastal tourists move to other destinations. "Once a certain level of environmental contamination is exceeded, tourists perceive its negative effect and this negatively influences their expectations," explained the researcher. The thesis has also found a correlation between pollution and business failure in different activities, not only those related to tourism. The director of the research, Mari Luz Maté, explained that improving the quality of seawater has "a positive and significant impact on the probability of survival of companies in most of the sectors". In this way, "envi-
ronmental pollution has more impact on the failure of companies than other characteristics, such as their age or their assets", she said. According to the study, companies in the agricultural sector also have a greater probability of failure if pollution levels are higher and the environmental factor also plays a relevant role in the survival of construction companies. "In the case of companies in the tourism and real estate sector, we found that pollution does not have a significant effect. However, the distance to the beach is a relevant factor, increasing the probability of bankruptcy of companies located near to the beach, which may be an indirect indicator of the relationship with environmental deterioration", they added. Compared to the south of the Alicante coast, the prices of homes in the Mar Menor show value which is 45 percent less in the period 20152021, according to a Bank of Spain report from autumn 2021, that is also cited in the thesis. In monetary terms, the houses in the Mar Menor would cost up to 500 euro less per square metre than those in the south of Alicante. The global quantification of this environmental deterioration and property value rises to 4,1 billion euro.