Newspaper today |The beaches contaminated by the oil spill in Peru rise to 24

Through a statement released on social networks, the entity explained that to date there are 24 beaches affected with hydrocarbons, which extend from the La Pampilla refinery, located in the Ventanilla district in the province of Callao, until thePeralvillo Beach, in the municipality of Chancay.

"The environmental disaster has continued to extend from the beaches of the Ventanilla district to the coast of the Chancay district, obtaining reports of water and sand pollution on 24 beaches," said Digesa, which in her last statement had encrypted in 21 the numberof contaminated beaches.

This environmental catastrophe, which has been qualified by the Peruvian government as "the worst ecological disaster" occurred in Lima in recent years, has already affected about 100 kilometers of coast, while the crude oil stain covers an area of approximately 11,9 square kilometers between sea and coast, as reported on Friday the Ministry of Environment.

Given this scenario, the DIGESA urged the regional authorities to restrict the use of contaminated beaches until cleaning work is carried out and recommended that the population not go to the areas impacted by the spill "for representing a serious health risk".

"Drastic sanction"

According to Repsol's latest report, the amount of raw spilled would have reached 10.396 barrels of oil (1.65 million liters), a significantly higher than 6.000 barrels that the company had indicated in previous days and slightly less than 11.900 barrels (1.9 million liters) estimated by the Ministry of Environment.

At first, the transnational company reported the loss of only 0.16 barrels (about 25 liters).

Given this figures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Repsol on Saturday night of having "shown a probably malicious attitude" and said the government "will announce a drastic sanction" against the company.

"(The) Information about the true amount of barrels of oil spilled in the window ratifies the echocide and reveals the lack of transparency of Repsol," wrote the Foreign Ministry on social networks.

While the competent authorities seek to determine the causes and responsible for the disaster, the executive director of Repsol in Peru, Jaime Martínez-Cuesta, has been prevented from leaving the country for 18 months along with three other managers and responsible for the company.

In addition, the Environmental Evaluation and Control Agency (OEFA) has indicated that Repsol has breached the deadlines of the first series of measures dictated to clean the environmental disaster and warned that the company is exposed to millionaire fines that could reach 226 million soles(about 59 million dollars).

For its part, Repsol reported that 35 % of spilled oil has already been recovered through the cleaning of the sea and the beaches, in which they are working about 2.500 people and dozens of vessels on the high seas.