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Bathing water quality in the period 2011-2019: Croatia vs Region vs EU

The objective of this paper is to summarize and compare the results of a nine-year period (2011- 2019) of monitoring of the quality of inland and coastal bathing sites in the Republic of Croatia (CRO), EU Member States and non-EU countries in region: Bosnia and Herzegovina (for entity of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH), Serbia and Montenegro. Additionally, an individual overview of water quality is given, for the last year of the observed period (2019). Data on bathing water quality in EU member states are obtained from the official annual reports of European Environment Agency (EEA) on the quality of inland and coastal bathing waters in the EU. Data for non-EU countries are obtained from their national or entity official reports on bathing water quality. Monitoring of the quality of inland bathing waters of CRO initiated in 2011. It is relatively new, if compared to the monitoring of the bathing seawater that has been, without cease, carried out from 1989. The number of inland locations where the quality of bathing water in CRO is monitored, has increased for more than 8 times since 2011, from 4 to 35 locations (in 2019). During the observed period (2011-2019), the highest number of inland bathing sites (N) in EU was in Germany (N2011=1938 ; N2019 =1924), while, the lowest number of bathing sites was in Greece (N2011=6 ; N2019=3). When considering the total number of bathing sites comprising all EU member states, during the period 2011-2019 their number has increased by 7%, from 6, 493 to 6, 949 sites, with the share of excellent quality grades increasing from 70, 4% to 82, 1%, respectively. The share of excellent grades in Croatia varied considerably depending on the season (from 0% in 2012 to 75% in 2011). In the nine-year study period, the highest share of inland bathing sites of poor water quality was recorded for Spain (12.3%), followed by Ireland (4.9%), the Netherlands (4.7%), Belgium (4.6%) and France (3.3%). Croatia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Greece and Bulgaria belong to the group of countries without inland bathing areas of poor water quality. The highest share of inland bathing sites of excellent water quality in the last year of the studied period (2019) was recorded in Austria (98.5%). It was followed by Finland (94.2%), Denmark (94%), Germany (93.7%) and Italy (90%). The <50% share of inland bathing sites of excellent quality was recorded in Bulgaria (25%), Croatia (20%), Poland (18.7%) and Romania (0%). Looking at the EU member states bordering Croatia, the best inland bathing water quality for the nine-year period was recorded in Italy (85.5% of bathing sites of excellent water quality), followed by Hungary (65.8%), Slovenia (53.4%) and Croatia (26.7%). EU average share of inland bathing sites of excellent water quality in the same period is 78%. Croatia's bordering non-EU countries, which also do the monitoring of the quality of inland bathing waters are Serbia (78 bathing sites) and Montenegro (47) though the FBiH zones intended for bathing and recreation have not been officially declared. During the period covered by this study, the number of both inland and coastal bathing sites in HR and EU had increased from 906 and 14, 538 in 2011 to 953 and 15, 032 in 2019, (by 5.2% and 3.4%, respectively) The highest number of coastal bathing sites is recorded in Italy (N2011=4902 ; N2019=4864), while the lowest number in Lithuania (N2011, 2019=16). In relation to the length of the shoreline, Italy has the highest number of locations per 10 km of coastline (6.4), followed by Belgium (6.3) and France (6.0). The lowest number have Finland (0.6), UK (0.5) and Estonia (0.1). The 9-year share of coastal bathing sites with excellent quality in Croatia is significantly higher than the average of all EU member states (96.5% and 85.0%, respectively). Countries with the highest average share of coastal bathing sites of excellent water quality for that same period were: Cyprus (99.2%), Slovenia (98.9%), Malta (98.4%), CRO (96.5%) and Greece (95.7%). Taking into account the nine-year average of coastal bathing site graded poor quality in the EU Member States, the highest share of such bathing sites was recorded in Estonia (5.0%), followed by Ireland (3.5%) and the United Kingdom (3.1%). Croatia recorded 0.1% of bathing sites of poor quality. Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus belong to the group of countries without bathing sites with poor water quality. In the last year of the observed period (2019), the highest share of coastal bathing sites of excellent quality was recorded in Lithuania (100%), followed by Cyprus (99.15), Croatia (98.4%), Malta (97.7%), Belgium (97.6%), Greece (95.8%) and Slovenia (95.2%). All other EU Member States showed the >60% share of sites of excellent quality, with the exception of Estonia (51.9) and Poland (29.4%). Taking into account the EU Member States bordering Croatia, the highest share of bathing sites of excellent water quality in the nine-year period was recorded by Slovenia (98.9%). Montenegro, the only non-EU country bordering Croatia likewise monitoring the quality of coastal bathing waters has 100 bathing sites and excellent quality share of 89.0% (in 2019). FBiH has three bathing sites with three samples taken during that bathing season and all were excellent. The data show that the quality of inland bathing water in Croatia and its’ non-EU neighboring countries is generally worse than the EU average while the share of coastal bathing sites with excellent quality in Croatia is significantly higher than the average of all EU member states.

inland and coastal bathing sites ; bathing water quality ; monitoring

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