Contamination of bathing waters can pose a risk to human health and the environment.
Why is this an indicator? » What is the trend? » What is being done about it? » Would you like to know more?
Contamination of bathing waters can pose a risk to human health and the environment. Better bathing water quality enhances our enjoyment and could also benefit the local tourist industry, especially our coastal resorts.
Bathing water quality has improved in England and Wales. 99% of monitored bathing waters now comply with the basic standards of the EC Bathing Waters Directive. The target is to achieve and then maintain at least 97% compliance. Over 82% of bathing waters now comply with the stricter guideline standards, compared with 32% in 1990. These improvements are due to substantial investment at many coastal sewage treatment works to improve their discharges.
There is a risk that some bathing waters will pass one year and fail in another even though statistically the actual quality is not significantly different. This is due to the effects of chance associated with sampling. Differences in the weather can also be a key factor. During cloudier weather there is less ultraviolet light which naturally will destroy bacterial contamination. In wet weather the operation of storm overflows is more likely.
View indicator
We will continue to investigate all sources of contamination at all non-compliant bathing waters. Water companies are continuing to invest customers’ money in upgrading their systems to safeguard the current high standards and to improve waters further. We will investigate options for upgrading coastal sewerage systems to target the achievement of guideline standards where the costs of this can be justified.
The science and data behind this indicator:
