European bathing water quality in 2018

The European Environment Agency published on 6 June 2019 its report on the quality of European bathing water for the year 2018.

This report was prepared on the basis of reports from the 28 EU Member States as well as Albania and Switzerland.
During the bathing season, local authorities take water samples from the listed bathing sites, which are analysed for E.coli and Intestinal Enterococci.

Depending on the quantities detected, the bathing water is classified in one of four categories: "excellent quality", "good quality", "sufficient quality" or "insufficient quality".
For the 2018 bathing season, 22 131 bathing waters (coastal and inland waters) were monitored and 445 new waters were identified.

Under the Bathing Water Directive, the objective is that all bathing sites should be classified at least as being of sufficient quality.
In 2018 :

• 95.4% of bathing sites met the minimum 'sufficient' quality requirements (compared to 96% in 2017). This decrease was due to the opening of new bathing sites for which insufficient samples had been taken to classify bathing water quality.
• 85.1% of them met the strictest standards set by the Bathing Water Directive, corresponding to ³cexcellent³d quality.
• 289 bathing sites (1.3%) were classified as 'poor' (compared to 1.4% in 2017). Ingestion of these polluted waters can have repercussions on human health such as stomach disorders and diarrhoea.

The three countries with the highest number of bathing sites with insufficient quality are Italy (89 bathing sites or 1.6%), France (54 sites or 1.6%) and Spain (50 sites or 2.2%). Compared to the 2017 season, the number of poor quality bathing sites in France decreased (from 80 in 2017 to 54 in 2018), while an increase in poor quality bathing waters was observed in Italy (from 79 to 89) and Spain (from 38 to 50).

Please note that your Phytocontrol laboratory is accredited for the detection of Intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli in fresh water, waste water and saline and brackish water according to the standards NF EN ISO 7899-1 and NF EN ISO 9308-3. You will find details of our scope of accreditation: N°1-6066 on the cofrac website.

For any information, do not hesitate to contact us.