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4.3 Information dissemination

Each of the water industry directives requires that the public be informed of the results. The BWD describes the requirements for dissemination of information in Article 12. The EEA produces an annual report that publishes the results of the bathing water assessments.  Article 13 of the DWD covers information and reporting about water intended for human consumption. According to these articles, Member States have to ensure that the public has adequate and up-to-date information on the quality of bathing and drinking water. The UWWTD obliges the Member States to publish periodic reports about the disposal of wastewater and sludge under Article 16.

The interlinkage between the EU-level information and the national information platforms is important. EU-level information provides an overview at broader scale, enabling citizens and other stakeholders to compare the situation across the EU according to legislative reporting requirements. National information platforms can cater more directly to a Member State’s own needs and be updated more readily with the latest available information.

WISE is one of the main ways of making water information available to the public at the European level. It comprises a wide range of data and information collected by the EU institutions, and presents them through a set of map and data viewers.

The viewers are accessible through the EEA’s bathing water and UWWTD websites. They allow users to examine bathing water quality as well as UWWTD data 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. They can examine various UWWTD data (agglomerations, discharge points, sensitive areas, treatment plants, etc.) on the UWWTD map viewer.