Mexico City  - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Friday launched a multi-million-dollar plan to clean up beaches on Acapulco Bay, one of the country's main tourist destinations and currently polluted by sewage water.

The programme contemplates investment of some 70 million dollars by 2011, National Water Commission director Jose Luis Luege Tamargo said at an event headed by Calderon in the port city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.

"To put it simply, we are going to rescue Acapulco Bay," said Calderon.

Zeferino Torreblanca, governor of the state of Guerrero, and Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado Macedonio were also present.

The programme will seek to improve infrastructure to dispose of sewage water, to improve drainage, to guarantee the supply of abundant high-quality drinking water and to prevent flooding in seasons of rain and hurricanes.

Acapulco, some 390 kilometres south-west of Mexico City, is Mexicans' favourite beach resort destination. However, it has lost the glamour it enjoyed in the 1970s, when it was favoured by the jet set and Hollywood stars.

The city currently has some 640,000 residents and hosts an estimated 6 million visitors a year, from Mexico and abroad.

Given the bad reputation currently of its beaches, in recent years it has become a tradition for the mayor to publicly get into the water in advance of tourist season to show that it poses no health threats.

The new programme, Calderon noted, will put an end to the feeling that water quality "depends on whether officials get in or not."

Luege Tamargo explained that Acapulco generates 2,010 litres of sewage per second and only 15 per cent, some 310 litres per second, currently receive treatment.

In April, one health ministry official said none of the 15 beaches in and around Acapulco met the standards to be granted the quality certificate by the environment ministry. (dpa)