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3.4.       Now we can swim in some of our cities again

Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, the geographical distribution of human populations across Europe has changed significantly. In that time, Europe has become one of the most densely populated regions in the world, where almost 75% of the population lives in urban areas (Koceva, et al., 2016). The gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas has come at a cost to European rivers and lakes over the last century. Many freshwaters were heavily degraded and polluted during this urbanisation process (EEA, 2016). As a result, traditional uses of rivers – such as bathing – disappeared. Large loads of wastewater flowing directly to the rivers and lakes made bathing impossible at such places without jeopardising human health.