Beaches or lakes: in these European countries, vacationers swim in particularly clean waters

In autumn, some Germans want to take the opportunity to go on a sunny beach holiday in southern Europe.

But where are the cleanest bodies of water?

Have you ever wondered how clean the water is that you swim in while on vacation?

An annual report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which was produced in cooperation with the European Commission and published in June, provides information on this.

The result is: The vast majority of bathing waters in Europe - whether on the coast or inland - meet the

.

Vacation: Most of these countries are clean bathing waters

boast of

particularly clean waters

: in these countries

.

In 2020, 82.8 percent of bathing waters across Europe scored points with "excellent" water quality.

"Sufficient" water quality was proven at 93 percent of the monitored locations.

Bathing waters in the 27 member states of the EU as well as Albania, Great Britain and Switzerland were tested.

An evaluation for German bathing waters shows that here too 89.9 percent come up with “excellent” quality.

Only 0.5 percent had poor quality.

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“This is the result of the more than 40 years of implementation of the Bathing Water Directive, the great commitment of committed people and good cooperation.

The Zero Pollution Action Plan adopted in May will help ensure that our waters remain healthy and safe and that our seas and rivers remain clean, ”said Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for the Environment, Seas and Fisheries.

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However, 296 bathing waters had to be satisfied with the

- this corresponds to around 1.3 percent of bathing waters in Europe.

The presence of E. coli bacteria and intestinal enterococci - they are indicators of

- are decisive for the evaluation

.

Due to the corona pandemic, some water bodies could not be classified because not enough samples could be taken.