Brits will be looking forward to visiting amazing beaches and lakes across Europe during their holidays this summer. However, some water spots are dirtier than others, and it’s important to know the areas to avoid for health reasons.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) released its annual update on water quality across the continent on Friday. Experts tested over 22,000 beaches, rivers and lakes for faecal contamination. According to the results, 4% met the EU’s minimum “sufficient” rating while 1.5% were of “poor quality”.
As reported by The Local, the best bathing waters are in Cyprus where 99.2% are of “excellent” quality. Meanwhile, Bulgaria is second with 97.9% and Greece is third with 97%.
Austrian waters came in at 95.8% excellent while Croatia scored 95.2% in the top category. Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain also featured in the top 10 of the list for the safest waters.
European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said: “Europeans can confidently bathe in the vast majority of the EU’s bathing sites that meet the EU’s bathing quality standards.” The average rating of excellent waters was 85% across Europe.
However, Switzerland fell down the rankings with a ranking of 83.1% – around 8% lower than the year before. France and Sweden also featured low in the list with 74.2% and 73.5% respectively.
France had 16 more “poor” bathing areas in comparison to the year before. This was due to a drop in river water quality.
Sweden also recorded 19 sites with “poor” quality water. This was five fewer than than the previous year.
Albania came rock bottom of the rankings with just 16% of excellent quality swimming waters. This is a huge drop of 25% from the 12 months prior.
The EEA said extreme weather events, such as heavy rain, have been made more common by climate change. This has worsened the quality of water across Europe.
The body said: “In turn, these events will impact bathing water quality through pollution from sewer overflows, floods or surface run-off. This will come with corresponding potential increased health risks for bathers.”