For the last month or so the City’s Environmental Quality department, together with its Tourism Patrol have been making visits weekly to the various bathing beaches to supervise and enforce their levels of cleanliness as per this standard ....[read more]

The Municipality has set a standard for what defines ‘cleanliness' for beaches.  For the last month or so the City's Environmental Quality department, together with its Tourism Patrol have been making visits weekly to the various bathing beaches to supervise and enforce their levels of cleanliness as per this standard:

Very clean - no cigarette butts, raked, no rubbish lying around.

Clean - a few cigarette butts, raked, no rubbish lying around.

Mediocre - cigarette butts, not raked.

Dirty - cigarette butts, not raked, rubbish lying around on the beach.

Very dirty - cigarette butts, not raked, a lot of rubbish lying around or, alternatively, stakes and pieces of junk on the beach.

"Because we aspire not to mediocrity but to a very clean beach, it was decided that a beach whose level of cleanliness was defined as ‘mediocre', not to mention a dirty beach, will receive a warning and, if the level of cleanliness has not improved by the next inspection, that beach will receive a 660 NIS fine," explains Yosi Uziel, manager of the Tourism Patrol, adding that a very dirty beach will receive an immediate fine in that amount.

The beaches being visited include Kisousky Beach, Tzion Beach, Papaya Beach, Niki Beach, Sheraton Moriah Beach, Maman Beach, Hananiah Beach, the Municipal Marina, the Sailing Club, Hilton Beach, Royal-Beach Beach, Hazahav Beach, Dan Beach, Herods Beach, Sun Bay Beach, and the Mall Hayam beach.

On the inspection held on 23 June, the level of cleanliness at Maman, Dan, and Herods beaches was defined as mediocre.  The Reef Hotel [beach] was considered dirty, and was issued an immediate warning in which the hotel's general manager was told that if the level of cleanliness has not improved by the next inspection, this will incur a fine of 660 NIS.  The Papaya, Hilton Queen of Sheba, Royal-Beach, and Municipal Marina beaches were all found to be very clean, and the rest were defined as clean.

Update 8 July:  The latest inspection resulted in Tzion Beach receiving a fine for having a ‘dirty' beach, while all the rest of the beaches inspected this time around were found to be ‘clean' or even ‘very clean'!