This year’s European Environment Agency’s report on the cleanliness of European bathing waters, reaffirms the excellent bathing water quality in Greece. The report was released on May 21 in Brussels.
According to the report, the Greek bathing waters rank fifth in cleanliness in Europe, with a quality rate of 93,3%.
Cyprus and Luxembourg stand out, as they have achieved an excellent water quality (100%) among the total registered bathing areas.
In eight countries, the quality rates are excellent, as they exceed the average European Union values.
These countries are Malta (97%), Croatia (95%), Greece (93%), Germany (88%), Portugal (87%), Italy (85%), Finland (83%) and Spain (83%).
According to the European Commission these figures represent an improvement on last year’s results, maintaining the positive trend recorded since 1990, when the monitoring of bathing waters started, under a relevant directive.
With respect to the total of European bathing waters, the EEA report notes that their improvement continues, as the 94% of the EU bathing areas meet the minimum water quality standards.
The water quality is excellent in 78% of the regions, while the number of areas fulfilling the minimum standards increased by 2%, in comparison to last year’s data.
Despite the general improvement, this year’s report shows that the water quality is insufficient to almost 2% of coastal, lake and river bathing areas.
The highest rates of bathing areas that didn’t meet the requirements are observed in Belgium (12%), in Netherlands and in the United Kingdom. In some of these areas swimming was banned for the bathing season 2012. In general, the performance of coastal bathing areas is better, as more than 95% of the EU regions fulfill the minimum standards, while 81% is considered excellent quality. In comparison, 91% of lake and river bathing areas exceeds the minimum limit, while 72% of them is also of excellent quality.
Every year the EEA composes data about the bathing water quality, which is collected by the local authorities in more than 22,000 areas of 27 EU member-states, Croatia and Switzerland. This data derives from measurements of the levels of bacteria resulting from sewage and farming.
More than two thirds of bathing areas are sea coasts and the rest is lakes and rivers.
The citizens can be informed of the water quality of the bathing region of their preference on the EEA website. They can also report the state of bathing waters of their region through the website Eye on Earth.
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