One of the most popular beaches in Peru’s capital Lima will close for one day on Sunday, in a rare move by authorities who say that heaps of garbage left each weekend has made the cherished spot unusable.
Agua Dulce, which stretches for about a kilometer (0.6 miles), hosts up to 70,000 visitors every weekend during the summer season from December to March.
“This measure is a way to make vacationers aware of the pollution they are generating on the beaches,” the mayor of Lima’s Chorrillos district, Richard Cortez, told reporters.
The brief closure will allow crews to clean up the sandy coastline.
City officials say nearly 20 tons of trash — from plastic and glass bottles to food waste — is collected every week at Agua Dulce. This week, one cleaning crew cleared half of a roasted pig, buried in the sand.
“This has been going on for years,” said Cortez. “The best message we can send to visitors is to close the beach. We must not end up having to close it permanently.”
Lima is home to more than 10 million people.
cm/gmo/sst/msp