Clean bathing waters found at most EU holiday spots
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E-mail Xinhua, May 24, 2012
Holidaymakers in Europe can expect to swim in clean lakes and coastal water this summer, as over 92 percent of the European Union's bathing waters meet minimum quality standards, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said here Wednesday.
According to the agency's Bathing Water Report 2011, which describes water quality at some 22,000 bathing sites at beaches, rivers and lakes across Europe, some 77.1 percent of the sites had "excellent" quality, indicating a 3.5-percent improvement on 2010.
Nine out of 10 sites met "minimum standards," and less than 2 percent were "non-compliant" with minimum standards, the report said.
The overall tendency shows a slight improvement in Europe's bathing waters since 2010, and a marked improvement since 20 years ago, it added.
"The quality of water at beaches and other bathing spots is one of the most important environmental concerns of European citizens," said Professor Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the Copenhagen-based EEA.
"But in several countries there is still a problem with pollution from agriculture and sewage, so we need to see more efforts to ensure safe and clean water for the public," she added, in a press statement accompanying the report.
Some two-thirds of the reported bathing sites are in Europe's coastal waters, with the rest in rivers and lakes. Water samples were tested for levels of certain bacteria, which could indicate the presence of pollution from livestock waste or sewage, among others.
Popular holiday destinations such as Cyprus, Malta and Greece reported the highest quality bathing water sites, while the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Belgium had a lower proportion of sites meeting the guideline values, the report said.
In Denmark, just one out of 118 lakes and 39 out of 1,012 beaches did not meet the minimums standards.
The country, which has one of Europe's longest coastlines, performed worse in 2011 than in 2010, owing to heavy downpours last year which caused bacteria-contaminated water to overflow from sewage systems and waste-water basins.
The annual EEA bathing water report collects information on bathing water quality from all 27 EU member states, and this year included results from Croatia, Montenegro and Switzerland as well.
Italy, Greece, France and Spain have the greatest number of coastal bathing waters, while Germany and France have the most inland bathing waters.
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