Union starts to clean up on the beach

Date: 30/07/1998

As EU holidaymakers head off in search of sun, sand and sea, they can take heart from the latest annual report from the European Commission on the quality of EU bathing water, reports Simon Coss. But although significant progress has been made in cleaning up Europe's beaches, freshwater swimmers will still need to exercise caution IF YOU fancy a swim this summer, your best bet is to head for the coast. According to the European Commission's annual Quality of Bathing Water report, published in May, more than 90&percent; of the Union's beaches now meet exacting EU standards.

Europe's lakes and rivers, on the other hand, are a rather less inviting proposition for overheated holidaymakers in search of a cooling dip. At present, one in five of the EU's freshwater bathing areas fails the Euro-grade.

However, the fact that 20&percent; of inland swimming spots are substandard represents an improvement on previous years. Last year's report, for example, revealed that one third of sites sampled were not technically fit to swim in.

The Commission stressed the importance of improving the quality of the Union's inland bathing waters when it published this year's report and it claimed that calls from Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard for governments to take lake and river quality seriously seemed to be paying off.

“Repeated pleas from Commissioner Bjerregaard in previous years for more attention to be paid to vulnerable freshwater bathing areas have finally shown their first encouraging results,” it said.

Yet while there seems to have been an overall improvement in the quality of inland bathing waters, the situation still varies greatly between EU countries.

At the top of the list of offenders is the UK. London's case is unusual since it is not so much criticised for the quality of its lakes and rivers as for the fact that it opted to provide no information whatsoever on the state of its inland swimming sites.

Apparently so few people decide to dive into the UK's lakes, rivers and streams that the British authorities decided there was no need to compile statistics. However, they have promised the Commission that next year they will provide information on 14 sites.

For those countries which did send figures to Brussels, the results are decidedly mixed.

The situation in Portugal is apparently “worrying” with a continuing deterioration noted in the country's inland swimming waters. Finland and Sweden need to come up with better methods for measuring water standards and France still has too many inland swimming zones which have been insufficiently sampled.

On the positive side, all of Ireland's recognised freshwater swimming areas meet the grade, while Belgium and Germany have both made substantial improvements in the quality of their inland bathing sites.

However, while the state of the Union's inland swimming waters is of concern to many, when it comes to mass enjoyment of swimming there is no doubt that the beach is the place to be.

However, for the millions of hoteliers, campsite-owners, restaurateurs and their seasonal workers who make their living in Europe's summer seaside resorts, clean mean money. If a resort gets a reputation for having dirty bathing water, the effect on trade can be serious.

“The beaches that have bathing water of insufficient quality are obviously areas where parents would hesitate to take their children,” said Bjerregaard's spokesman Peter Jørgensen recently. “We are not saying anyone will die if they use those waters but obviously if the water is of insufficient quality, then you can say it is unfit to swim in.”

The vital importance of clean bathing water to the tourism industry was outlined in a recent report produced by the World Tourism Organisation. “Coastal areas are one of the industry's principle resources and there is an urgent need to protect and improve coastal resources,” said the document.

However, the organisation also recognised that in reality it can prove surprisingly difficult for local communities to work together to protect bathing water and admits that few attempts to protect coastal zones have been successful.

“The main reason for this is that they have largely been sectoral and there is fierce competition for coastal resources in many areas,” argued the report.

The tourism agency pointed out that there is often open conflict between different groups over access to the coastline in seaside areas with marina owners, operators of tourist beaches, fish-breeders and industry often vying for a share of the same limited resources.

Beaches which are covered in the Commission's annual report fall into three categories and are judged according to a number of criteria, which include levels of pollution from chemical discharges, oil and sewage.

Areas which have been closed to the public by national authorities because they are considered unfit for swimming are awarded a 'black circle': the worst mark a beach can receive. An extremely small percentage of the Union's beaches currently falls into this category. At the moment, 1.1&percent; of beaches in Denmark, 0.5&percent; in Germany and 1.1&percent; in Finland have black-circle status.

Next come those beaches which have not been properly sampled. These are generally given an orange circle, although a red circle can be awarded if the limited information available shows the water quality does not come up to scratch.

The third category, and by far the largest, covers beaches which have been fully tested. Here, three possible circle-marks can be awarded.

Beaches which comply with minimum cleanliness levels set out in a 1976 water quality directive are allotted a green circle, although this is still not the highest accolade a coastal swimming area can receive.

To encourage governments to improve their efforts to clean up their coastlines, the Commission also hands out much sought-after blue circles.

This top prize is awarded to beaches which comply with water quality standards set out in the Commission's own guidelines and which go further than the 1976 rules.

In the Commission's bathing water report, only beaches with blue circles are deemed to have water of “good quality”.

Beaches which fail to win either a blue or a green award are branded with a red circle, indicating that their bathing waters are substandard. As many as 82.8&percent; of the Union's beaches match up to blue circle standards and 93.3&percent; meet the slightly less stringent green circle requirements.

The Union's cleanest beaches can be found in Greece and Italy. An impressive 95&percent; of Greek beaches are awarded blue circles while 90.3&percent; of Italian resorts manage to reach the top category.

Belgium, a country with a relatively short coastline, is the only EU member state to achieve 100&percent; compliance with the green circle criteria although, interestingly, it also achieves the lowest score (20.5&percent;) when it comes to obtaining blue circle awards.

Bjerregaard said recently that she was encouraged that EU member states seemed to be making improvements in the quality of their bathing water, but stressed that work still needed to be done.

“Enforcing this legislation has led to substantial progress in the safety of bathing water in Europe,” she said. “However, we need to strengthen this process and I call on member states and citizens to make a supplementary effort in areas where problems continue to be reported.”

The Commission has produced its eagerly awaited swimmers' guide every year since 1983 and the report now covers 13,129 seaside beaches and 6,177 lakes and rivers.