battlezone123

Taken from the local paper:

Galicia, with 131 awards to beaches and 40 coastal municipalities, stands at the head of the autonomous communities in the number of blue flags, ahead of Valencia (120), Catalonia (89) and Andalusia (78). There are eight more than during the summer of 2014 flags.

But Years 2 and 3 of ESO deserve a pat on the back for their work on Monday and Tuesday. To give the children a better understanding of "recycling" they were given gloves and black bags, excused from lessons for two hours, and told to go and clean the beach of all rubbish. The beaches are very clean here and what rubbish there is comes in with the tides. I suppose it is council cutbacks involving children.

Fred James

I'm not surprised with all that clean water from the Atlantic.

The other places you mention are in the Mediterranean, which is basically a big cess pit in comparison.

cricketman

A beach doesnt need a blue flag to be excellent. Blue flag beaches need to have facilities such as toilets, bins and lifeguards

Asturias has excellent beaches but few blue flags because there are many "virgin" beaches with no facilities but are clean and spectacular

Casa Santo Estevo

RE Galician water quality. Someone has not told the truth.
News In Spanish.

Moses2013

As CM mentioned, the problem is that a blue flag beach can have poor water quality if it has excellent toilet facilities etc. and the beach is clean.