A Spanish official apologized after authorizing a local beach be sprayed with bleach in an attempt to disinfect it from the coronavirus

• Tractors drove across Zahara de los Atunes — a beach on the southern coast of Spain — spraying a bleach solution to disinfect it of the coronavirus.
• The move was met with public outcry, namely from local environmentalists who said it caused "brutal" damage to the ecosystem of Zahara de los Atunes, the BBC reported.
• Spain's Greenpeace organization compared the move to Trump's "sarcastic" suggestion that experts should research if disinfectants can be injected into the human body to cure the coronavirus.
• City official Agustín Conejo apologized for the "wrong" move, saying that it was only meant to combat the infectious coronavirus.
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An official apologized after authorizing a local beach on Spain's southern coast be sprayed with beach solution to disinfect the sand of the coronavirus.

Tractors sprayed Zahara de los Atunes — located near the city of Cadiz in the Andalucian region of Spain — with a diluted bleach solution in an attempt to sanitize the area before children in quarantine came to play when the lockdown is lifted.

The move was met with public outcry, namely from local environmentalists who said it caused "brutal" damage to the ecosystem of Zahara de los Atunes, the BBC reported.

Environmentalist María Dolores Iglesias said she saw the damage to the beach firsthand, saying that the bleach solution "killed everything on the ground, nothing is seen, not even insects."

"They have devastated the dune spaces and gone against all the rules," she told Spanish media, according to the BBC report. "It has been an aberration what they have done, also taking into account that the virus lives in people, not on the beach. It is crazy."

Iglesias, who is the head of a local environmental volunteer group in Cadiz, said the beach "has its own way of cleaning itself," and that the bleach was not necessary, even if it was meant to kill the coronavirus.

"They do not think that this is a living ecosystem, but a lot of land," she said.

Spain's Greenpeace organization compared the move to Trump's "sarcastic" suggestion that experts should research if disinfectants can be injected into the human body to cure the coronavirus.

"Fumigating beaches in the middle of the breeding season for birds or the development of the invertebrate network that will support coastal fishing ... is not one of Trump's ideas," the organization tweeted. "It is happening in Zahara de los Atunes."

Local official Agustín Conejo apologized for the "wrong" move, saying that it was only meant to combat the infectious coronavirus.

"I admit that it was a mistake, it was done with the best intention," he said, the BBC reported.

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