Cyprus has the highest percentage of bathing areas with “excellent water quality” – . Poland, on the other hand, is in penultimate place in the European Union. Only bathing areas in Albania, which is not part of the community, are dirtier.
Bathing areas in the EU. Poland almost at the bottom [RANKING]
The report found that in 2023, 85% of bathing sites in Europe (out of almost 22,000 locations) met EU standards of “excellent” quality. 96% of waters met the minimum quality standards required to meet the Bathing Water Directive. However, bathing sites with “poor” water quality accounted for around 1.5%. The document shows that sea water quality is generally better compared to inland waters.
In Cyprus, 97.6% of water bodies were awarded the status of excellent water. The next places were taken by Austria (96.9%) and Croatia (96.7%). In Albania, which came last, there were only 41.2% of “excellent bathing areas”, and Poland came penultimate in this ranking (54.9%). Problems with the cleanliness of bathing areas also occur in Hungary, Estonia, Belgium and Romania (the indicator of “excellent bathing areas” was 70% and less). Meanwhile, the EU average was 85%.
Bathing Water Quality in Europe Chart: European Environment Agency
There are a total of 739 bathing areas in Poland, and 406 of them have been given the status of “excellent” water quality. The quality of 21 of them was rated as “poor” – we read in the report entitled “European bathing water quality in 2023”.
Polluted bathing areas in the EU
Bathing in poor quality water can cause illness. In 2023, 321 of all bathing waters (1.5%) in the EU were of poor quality (compared to 1.9% in 2009). “Although the number of poor quality waters has stabilised in recent years, problems still persist in some places where the water is of poor quality or is often affected by short-term pollution. Short-term pollution can occur, for example, during heavy rainfall, when the capacity of sewage treatment plants is exceeded and untreated sewage enters,” the report explains.
Source: Gazeta
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