The port of Segur de Calafell today hosted the ceremony for the awarding of the Blue Flags 2024 to the ports and beaches of Catalonia. Sitges has received nine of these distinctions, a number that places it as the Catalan town with the most beaches recognised with this distinction. The Blue Flags are awarded annually by the international Blue Flag jury of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), in collaboration with the Association for Environmental and Consumer Education (ADEAC). The internationally recognised award values and rewards the correct management and environmental information, the excellence of the water quality, the facilities and the optimal provision of services and the accessibility and attention to people with functional diversity. It also requires ports to have excellent environmental management.

Specifically, the beaches where the blue flag will be flying in Sitges are Les Botigues, Garraf, Aiguadolç, Balmins, Sant Sebastià, La Ribera, L'Estanyol, La Barra and Terramar. In addition, the Port Ginesta marina has also been awarded this distinction. The head of environment and risks of Port Ginesta, Rosario Arroyo, has collected the blue flag for this port sitgetà. The nine blue flags for the beaches were collected by the mayoress of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell i Abella, who explained that "one of the main behaviours of the municipal government is to keep the beaches of Sitges in the best conditions and to offer excellent services and water quality. In this sense, being the municipality with the most blue flags for years is a recognition of the work done and a commitment to a renewal of the beach model that we have been progressively implementing". Carbonell recalled that "on the beaches of Sant Sebastià and Garraf we are awaiting the action planned by the Ministry of Ecological Transition to bring sand from the ports and recover these beaches after the last storm. The government believes that this is a temporary solution and we are calling for definitive solutions in the medium and long term".

The councillor for Territorial Planning, Ester Capella i Farré, presided over the event and also expressed herself in this sense, stressing that action must be taken against the climate emergency based on resilience. "We have to tend to be capable of not taking sand from one place to take it to another, but for the sand on the beaches to regenerate naturally. And this also means how we intervene in the ports, how we build the port areas, but also how, from the towns and cities, we think about how we make it possible for our promenades to be more natural. Therefore, this means that it is not enough to intervene every time, but that we have to intervene so that, in a natural way, everything returns to its place", said the Councillor.

The event was also attended by the secretary of the Regional Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Anna Barandas, and the president of the Association of Environmental and Consumer Education (ADEAC), José Palacios, as well as representatives of most of the municipalities with beaches that have achieved this distinction. In total, 118 blue flags have been awarded, 95 to beaches and 23 to marinas.

Of the 95 beaches awarded, 27 are in Girona, 20 in Barcelona, 22 in the Penedès, 18 in Tarragona and 8 in Terres de l'Ebre. Of the 23 marinas, 9 are in the Girona area, 7 in Barcelona and 7 more in Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre.