The European Environment Agency (EEA) published its annual report on the quality of bathing water for the 2011 season, once again confirming bathing water quality for Malta reached an excellent quality of 97.7%.
Malta was classified in the second place just after Cyprus with 99.1%. The result once again shows an improvement on 2010’s results where Malta was classified third with 95.4% of its bathing sites reaching an excellent quality.
A total of 87 coastal bathing waters were monitored in Malta during the 2011 bathing season. Malta accounts for about 0.4 % of the reported bathing waters of the European Union.
The results are from the latest annual Bathing Water Report of European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission, which describes water quality in more than 22,000 bathing sites at beaches, rivers and lakes across Europe last year.
Bathing water in Europe needs to comply with standards set in the 2006 Bathing Water Directive, which must be implemented by December 2014. The EU publishes an annual summary report on the quality of bathing water, based on reports that the Member States should submit before the end of the previous year. In this year’s report, all 27 Member States as well as Croatia, Montenegro and Switzerland monitored and reported bathing water quality, most of them according to the new provisions.
To download a copy of the full report visit : http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/european-bathing-water-quality-in-2011
European citizens can find out about the water quality at their favourite swimming spot by checking the Water Information System for Europe (WISE). The site allows users to download data and check interactive maps.
