Belgium has earned top marks in a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) on water quality for outdoor swimming spots. Almost all outdoor swimming areas in Belgium (97.7%) meet the minimum European standards, although the proportion of water of excellent quality remains below the European average. Belgium has 131 official outdoor swimming areas – 41 on the coast and 90 inland. Each swimming area must follow a fixed monitoring schedule with regular sampling. The EEA assessment found water of excellent quality in 89
swimming areas (67.9%), good quality in 35 areas (26.7%), sufficient quality in four areas (3.1%) and poor quality in just one swimming area at Campinastrand in Dessel, in the province of Antwerp. “Europe’s bathing water results once again demonstrate the value of EU environmental legislation and decades of investment in wastewater treatment and water management,” said Jessika Roswall, the EEA’s commissioner for environment, water resilience and a competitive circular economy. “Thanks to these efforts, Europeans can enjoy some of the world’s highest bathing water standards.
“At the same time, protecting our waters requires continued action on wider challenges such as pollution, biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change, which are at the heart of our work to strengthen Europe’s water resilience.” Along the Belgian coast, every outdoor swimming spot meets at least the “sufficient” quality standard. Of the 41 coastal areas, 26 (63%) are rated “excellent” and the remaining 15 are rated “good”. Inland, the proportion of areas classified as “excellent” is higher: 63 of the 90 sites (70%)
have been awarded this rating. At European level, 96% of outdoor swimming areas meet the minimum standards, and only 1.5% are classified as poor quality. These figures remain stable compared with the previous year. The best results come from Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece, where more than 95% of outdoor swimming areas achieve the highest quality class. However, with 67.9% of its outdoor swim spots rated as excellent, Belgium lies below the European average, just ahead of France and the Netherlands.
Belgium, outdoor swimming areas, bathing water quality, European Environment Agency, EEA, wastewater treatment, water resilience, Campinastrand Dessel