Quality of bathing waters

Setting the scene

The 7th EAP (EU, 2013) includes an objective that, by 2020, citizens throughout the EU will benefit from high standards of bathing water. Bathing water quality is a cause for concern for public health, as swimming at beaches or bathing lakes contaminated with faecal bacteria can result in illness. The major sources of pollution responsible for faecal bacteria are sewage and water draining from farms and farmland. Such pollution increases during heavy rain and floods, when pollution is washed into rivers and seas, and as a result of overflowing sewerage networks. In addition to good water quality for bathing, clean unpolluted water is required for ecosystems and to support economic activities such as tourism.

Policy targets and progress

The Bathing Water Directive (EU, 2006) has the aim of increasing the number of bathing waters classified as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. It also includes a shorter term goal that, by 2015, all waters should have been of at least ‘sufficient’ quality. In the context of this briefing, and with the aim of linking the objective of the 7th EAP regarding bathing water to the Bathing Water Directive, bathing waters that meet the minimum water quality standards of the Directive (meaning that they were of at least ‘sufficient’ bathing water quality) are considered to have achieved the high standards called for under the 7th EAP.

Minimum water quality standards were met by 96.3 % of all EU bathing waters identified for the 2016 bathing season, which represents an increase of 0.2 percentage points when compared with 2015. In total, 300 EU bathing waters were of poor quality in 2016. The proportion of poor quality bathing waters dropped to 1.4 % in 2016. This represents a 0.2 percentage point decrease compared with the previous season (EEA, 2017).

Figure 1 provides an overview for 2011 to 2016 of the classification of EU bathing waters into the excellent, sufficient (including good) and poor categories, as well as those bathing waters that could not be classified.

Figure 1. Overall bathing water quality in the EU

Note:
The category “quality classification not possible” includes waters for which there were not enough samples, new bathing waters, bathing waters with changes or bathing waters that had been closed.

The share of bathing waters in the EU whose status is excellent increased from 78.1 % in 2011 to 85.5 % in 2016. The proportion of bathing waters whose status is poor remained relatively constant (between 1.4 % and 2.0 %) during the 2011–2016 period (EEA, 2017).

Overall, bathing water quality is improving over time. It is encouraging to observe that more and more bathing waters are not only reaching the minimum quality standards set by the Bathing Water Directive but are achieving the highest (excellent) quality standards. The outlook towards the 2020 goal is therefore positive.

Many years of investment in the sewerage system and better wastewater treatment, and the reduction in pollution from farms have led to Europe’s bathing waters being much cleaner today than they were some 40 years ago when the original Bathing Water Directive was adopted (EU, 1976). The implementation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (EU, 1991) and a focus on reducing overflow from sewers have been instrumental in reducing pollution and in improving the quality of several low-quality bathing waters (EEA, 2017).

However, as figure 1 shows, there are still poor quality bathing waters. The major sources of pollution responsible for faecal bacteria in bathing waters today are still insufficiently treated or untreated wastewater as a result of system failures, overflows from sewage treatment works or from scattered houses with misconnected drains and poorly located or poorly maintained septic tanks, poorly stored slurry or manure from livestock that washes into streams, and animal (mostly dog) and bird faeces on beaches or crowded beaches with many swimmers.

In wet summers, large amounts of rainwater affect bathing water quality by causing stormwater overflow and the release of diluted sewage into bathing waters or streams that discharge close to beaches. Rainwater also washes animal waste from urban and rural areas into surface water drains and rivers.

In years with below average sunshine, water quality is also affected, as the sun’s ultraviolet rays kill the faecal bacteria found in the water.

In the case of poor quality bathing waters, it is imperative that the sources of pollution be assessed. The bathing water profiles prepared under the Bathing Water Directive should provide an indication of pollution sources in the catchment area of the bathing water and, together with historical data on rainfall, stream flow and sea currents, should provide information on the upstream sources of pollution to be targeted with measures. Management measures are primarily implemented for sufficient or poor quality bathing waters.

The share of bathing waters that meet excellent and good quality standards is likely to increase due to the implementation of the Bathing Water Directive and in particular the effect of measures for poor quality waters.

Country level information

Figure 2 provides the results for bathing water quality in 2016 for the EU Member States and two other countries. In general, bathing water quality was of a high standard across the countries.

Figure 2. Bathing water quality in 2016, by country

Note:
The category “quality classification not possible” includes waters for which there were not enough samples, new bathing waters, bathing waters with changes or bathing waters that had been closed.

All reported bathing water sites in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovenia for which classification was possible achieved at least sufficient quality in 2016 (according to minimum quality standards set in the Bathing Water Directive). In five countries, 95 % or more bathing waters were assessed as being of excellent quality: Luxembourg (all 11 reported bathing waters), Cyprus (99 % of all sites), Malta (99 % of all sites), Greece (97 % of all sites), and Austria (95 % of all sites).

In 2016, there were 300 sites with poor quality bathing water in the EU. Italy (100 bathing water sites or 1.8 %), France (82 sites or 2.4 %) and Spain (39 sites or 1.8 %) were the countries with the highest number of poor bathing water sites. In some EU Member States, more than 3 % of the bathing water sites were of poor quality: Ireland (six bathing waters or 4.3 %), the United Kingdom (20 bathing waters or 3.2 %), and Slovakia (one bathing water or 3 %) (EEA, 2017).

Outlook beyond 2020

Bathing water quality is not only essential for public health reasons. Clean unpolluted water is necessary to improve ecosystem resilience. Both can be achieved with more integrated and sustainable water resource management. This would require more robust implementation of the Water Framework Directive (EU, 2000), with River Basin Management Plans developed to improve the poorer quality bathing waters. This would serve to maintain the trend towards consistently high-quality EU bathing waters beyond 2020. 

About the indicator

This indicator provides an overview of the bathing water quality in 2016 at more than 21 000 bathing waters in the Member States of the EU. It also presents the evolution of bathing water quality from 2011 to 2016 at EU aggregated level. During the bathing season, samples from coastal and inland bathing waters are taken and analysed against two microbiological parameters that may indicate the presence of faecal pollution, namely intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli (also known as E. coli). After the end of the bathing season, and based on four years of data, bathing waters are classified into one of the bathing water quality classes (excellent, good, sufficient or poor). Some bathing waters have not been classified because there were insufficient samples or because they are new or have undergone changes affecting water quality. The full separation of the good and sufficient water quality classes has been possible only for the last two reporting years (2015 and 2016), which is why the time series in Figure 1 shows the good and sufficient classes together.

Footnotes and references

EEA, 2017, European bathing water quality in 2016, EEA Report No 5/2017, European Environment Agency.

EU, 1976, Council Directive 76/160/EEC of 8 December 1975 concerning the quality of bathing water (archived).

EU, 1991, Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment (OJ L 135, 30.5.1991, p. 40–52).

EU, 2000, Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (OJ L 327, 22.12.2000, p. 1–73).

EU, 2006, Council Directive 2006/7/EC concerning the management of bathing water quality and repealing Directive 76/160/EEC (OJ L 64, 4.3.2006, p. 37–51).

EU, 2013, Decision No 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’ (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 171–200). 

Environmental indicator report 2017 – In support to the monitoring of the 7^th Environment Action Programme, EEA report No21/2017, European Environment Agency