Beaches in the Black Sea resort town of Anapa will be ready for swimming starting next month as cleanup efforts from the December 2024 oil spill near completion, local officials said Monday.
“Today, I signed a decree establishing the dates for the 2026 swimming season at public waterfronts across Anapa. The season will officially begin on June 1 and run until Sept. 30,” Anapa Mayor Svetlana Maslova said in a post on Telegram.
“Infrastructure is currently being set up along the pebble beaches and a one-kilometer stretch of sandy coastline that were previously removed from the emergency zone,” Maslova added.
Swimming has been banned around the resort city of Anapa in the Krasnodar region since thousands of metric tons of heavy fuel oil, known as mazut, washed ashore after two tankers were damaged in a winter storm in the nearby Kerch Strait.
At least three Anapa beaches have received official health and safety clearance from Russia’s consumer safety watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor.
