1. Foreword and objectives of the report

Outdoor bathing is consistently among the top public recreational activities in Europe. It is also one of the most accessible ones – at least in the places with good access to clean seas, rivers or lakes. Every summer, millions of Europeans visit seas, rivers and lakes for exercise and recreation. Making sure that these bathing waters attain high enough quality to make these activities safe is thus a key priority for environmental policy and management.

In Europe, as in many other parts of the world, the water quality of coastal waters, rivers and lakes generally degraded from the 19th century onwards, largely owing to growing towns and industries discharging untreated wastewater. Through the 20th century, the increased use of pesticides and fertilisers on agricultural land added chemicals to this pollution ‘cocktail’, and recent evidence (EEA, 2017b) shows that climate change is further degrading water quality in Europe. Excessive nutrient pollution coupled with climate warming is causing eutrophication and even harmful algal blooms. In other words, European water quality in both freshwater and coastal ecosystems is affected by multiple pressures, some of which can interact to intensify their individual effects. Moreover, many river banks, lake shores and coastlines have been structurally modified for flood protection, navigation, tourism, land transportation and construction. Such modifications can also deteriorate water quality, limit self-purification and increase pollution risks.

Since the 1970s, the European Union has introduced numerous[1] environmental policies to improve the health and status of Europe’s waters. One key policy is the Bathing Water Directive (or BWD as it is often known) – originally introduced in 1976 and updated in 2006 – which aims to safeguard public health and recreation through the provision of clean bathing waters. European countries have subsequently made significant water quality improvements at several bathing sites, as well as identifying new sites, and prohibiting bathing at those that did not achieve adequate water quality guidelines.

This report will show how four decades of European water policy and management guided by the Bathing Water Directive has significantly improved bathing conditions across the continent. This represents a significant ‘good news’ story in an era of environmental declines and reported disconnections between people and nature, especially in urban areas. This report gives an overview of how specific water management measures, strategies and practices have been implemented in different places in response to local challenges. These serve as ‘good practice’ examples for management in the future. However, maintaining good bathing water conditions in the future will depend on adaptive management of emerging pressures such as climate change and plastic pollution. The report outlines the nature of these pressures, and their impacts, and highlights the management strategies that might mitigate their effects. The objectives of this report are thus twofold: first, to celebrate the value and importance of bathing waters in the lives of millions of European people; and second, to outline how we might protect and restore bathing sites for decades to come.