Spanish government to demolish buildings to "cleanse" coastline

Madrid - The Spanish government plans to demolish hotels, holiday residences and housing on more than 700 kilometres of the Mediterranean and Canary Islands coastline to recover a landscape suffering from environmental degradation, the daily El Pais reported Monday. Environmentalists have long been worried about the Spanish coast, which is crammed with buildings linked with the country's massive tourism industry. Some of the buildings have been constructed without adequate permits, possibly on protected terrain. The government now intends to seek a large-scale agreement with the regional and local authorities and with business owners to start 'cleansing' the coast of buildings. 'We intend to negotiate, not to proceed directly to expropriations,' El Pais quoted an official as saying. The plan is estimated to cost 5 billion euros (7 billion dollars). Hundreds of buildings have already been demolished, but most of them were of modest dimensions, according to the daily. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Spanish government to demolish buildings to "cleanse" coastline

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