Press release
Published: 10 Jun 2010
Clean bathing waters are vital for key economic sectors
such as tourism and for plant and animal life. The annual
bathing water report presented by the European Commission
and the European Environment Agency shows that 96 % of
coastal bathing areas and 90 % of bathing sites in rivers
and lakes complied with minimum standards in 2009. It
also describes where to obtain detailed and up-to-date
information on bathing sites.
Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik
said, 'Over the last thirty years, EU and national legislation
has significantly improved the quality of Europe's bathing
waters but our work does not end here. Despite our decade-long
track record of high quality, we need to keep up the effort
constantly to both improve and maintain what we have achieved.'
Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive
Director of the European Environment Agency, added, 'Further
improvement to Europe's bathing water quality requires
citizen involvement. This means, first and foremost, finding
out and understanding the current state of our environment
and then demanding cleaner water from relevant authorities.
Our web-based tools provide citizens easy access to environmental
information as well as a platform to voice their observations.'
Efforts to improve the quality of bathing
waters should be seen in the context of Europe's efforts
to achieve good ecological and environmental status in
accordance with the EU Water and Marine Framework Directives.
2009 results confirm a long-term upward
trend
Of the 20 000 bathing areas monitored throughout the European
Union in 2009, two-thirds were on the coast and the rest
were at rivers and lakes. Compliance with mandatory values
(minimum quality requirements) at coastal sites increased
from 80 % in 1990 to 96 % in 2009. For inland waters,
the increase was even greater, rising from 52 % to 90
%.
Between 2008 and 2009 there was a slight
deterioration in the number of bathing waters meeting
minimum standards, with reductions of less than 1 percentage
point (pp) for coastal sites and 3 pps for inland bathing
waters. Compliance with the more stringent 'guide values'
between 2008 and 2009 increased by slightly less than
1 pp for coastal sites to reach 89 % but decreased by
less than 3 pps for inland waters to 71 %. Such annual
fluctuations are not unusual by the standards of recent
years.
Almost all the coastal bathing sites
in Cyprus, France, Greece and Portugal complied with the
more stringent guide values [1]. Only 2 % of EU coastal
bathing sites were banned in 2009, mostly in Italy. Although
inland bathing sites show greater variation in water quality,
a large majority of the inland sites in Finland, France,
Germany and Sweden also complied with guide values.
Fourteen Member States monitoring under
the new Bathing Water Directive
To determine their quality, bathing waters are tested
against a number of physical, chemical and microbiological
parameters. Member States must comply with the mandatory
values set out in the Bathing Water Directive [2] but
may choose instead to adhere to the stricter (non-binding)
guide values.
In 2006 a new Bathing Water Directive
[3] took effect, which updated the parameters and monitoring
provisions in line with the latest scientific knowledge.
The new Directive places greater emphasis on providing
information to the public on the quality of bathing areas.
Member States have until 2015 to implement the new Directive
fully but fourteen Member States (Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden) already
monitored their bathing areas during the 2009 bathing
season according to the new Directive’s requirements .
+ More
Take a look at your water environment
Document Actions
Published: 23 Jun 2010
What are the nutrient levels in your coastal waters or
nearby lake? Do you live in an area where urban waste
water treatment fails to meet the EU requirements? The
European Environment Agency (EEA) provides the answers
through its interactive maps, which have been updated
with new water quality data.
Themes
Water Excessive levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorus in water bodies can cause algal blooms and
an associated loss in aquatic life. In addition, their
presence in drinking water requires expensive treatment.
Agriculture and waste water are the key sources of nutrients
in water bodies.
The European Water Data Centre, managed
by the EEA, presents data on water quality and quantity,
and nutrient releases to the water environment. It provides
a single entry point for European datasets and indicators
on water, including interactive maps most of them updated
with 2008 data.
Some maps provide an overview of the
water quality in European rivers, lakes, groundwater and
coastal waters. Local data can also be retrieved through
a zoom function. As a new feature, the areas designated
as sensitive according to Article 5 of the EU Urban Waste
Water Directive are displayed together with information
on the level of urban waste water treatment undertaken
at each treatment plant.
