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Is there a more enjoyable way to keep fit and healthy than to swim in Malta's beautiful sea? There are several benefits we can enjoy in the summer heat, from plunging into the water at Golden Bay, Għadira, Ramla Bay or any other of Malta's beaches - always after carefully applying a high-factor sunscreen of course - to taking a dip in Paphos in Cyprus or snorkelling in Nice in the south of France, or at one of the thousands of beaches in other parts of Europe.
W
e expect our bathing waters to be clean and safe, but we should realise that there are constant efforts being made by the local authorities and the European Union (EU) to ensure this and to keep us informed on where it is best to take a refreshing dip. How does the EU help citizens to
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choose clean and safe waters to enjoy? The efforts of the European Union to ensure clean and healthy bathing waters started in the 1970s.Then came the Bathing Water Directive in 2006, whose purpose is to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment and to protect human health.
Every year the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) publish a summary report on the quality of bathing water, based on the information provided by Member States. This EU-wide report covers all Member States, as well as Switzerland.The EEA analyses more than 22,000 sites and
Locations with "excellent" water quality Cyprus 100.0% Maita 96.6% Croatia 95.3% Greece 93.3% Portugal 86.7% Italy 85.1% Spain 82.8% France 59.6% UK 58.2%
•••
•• (Source: European Environment Agency)
"Malta is one of the EU champions where bathing water is concerned··
The bathing water section of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE), which is accessible at the EEA bathing water website (http://www.eea.europa. eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/ state-of-bathing-water), allows users to view the bathing water quality at more than 22 000 coastal beaches and inland sites across Europe. Users can check bathing water quality on an interactive map, download data for a selected country or region, and make comparisons with previous years.
measures levels of bacteria from sewage and livestock. According to the report published in May 2013, almost all the bathing sites in the European Union (94%) meet minimum standards for water quality.The results affirm an almost 2% improvement on 2012. Unfortunately, the report also revealed that almost 2% of bathing sites at beaches, lakes and rivers have poor water quality. The countries included in the list of non-compliant bathing sites include Belgium (12%), the Netherlands (7%) and the United Kingdom (6%), where some beaches had to be closed during last year's season. On a sunnier note, comparing contemporary results with those presented in the 1990s shows that better water treatment and fewer raw sewage discharges into the environment have increased the percentage of excellent bathing areas by around 30%. And what about the Maltese islands' beaches? Malta is one of the EU champions where bathing water is concerned. In fact it is classified in the second place with 96.6% of its bathing waters having excellent quality in 2012. No bathing waters had poor quality and no bathing waters were classified as closed during last year's bathing season.
How do we know where it is safe to bathe? The EU rules ensure timely information of the public during the bathing season, with an obligation for Member States to disseminate information on bathing water quality actively and promptly. In particular, notices banning or advising against bathing should be rapidly and easily identifiable. The Commission has established symbols for information to the public on bathing water classification and any bathing prohibition. In order to make information to the public more effective, all EU countries have national or local web portals with detailed information for each bathing water site. Websites generally include a map search function and public access to the monitoring results both in real time and for previous seasons. Citizens now have access to more bathing water information than ever, giving them the tools to become The Eye on Earth —WaterWatch more actively involved in protecting the application (http://eyeonearth.org/map/ environment and helping to improve WaterWatch/) allows users to zoom in on a Europe's bathing areas. section of coast, riverbank or lake, both in street map or, where available, bird's eye Interactive information on bathing viewing formats. (¡É water quality in Europe The data on bathing water quality in 2013 and previous years can also be viewed in WISE bathing water data viewer (http://bwd.eea.europa.eu/).
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