Worried about bathing water polluted by bacteria? According to a report, you don’t have to have them in Germany.
If you are looking for a cool down in German bathing waters this summer, you almost never have to worry about bacteria. As the new report by the European Environment Agency EEA shows, Germany’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters have very good water quality.
90.4 percent of the bathing waters analyzed in Germany in 2021 were characterized by excellent water conditions. Across Europe, this value was almost 85 percent, while around 95 percent of European waters met the EU minimum standards.
Only 14 of the 2291 analyzed German bathing spots were classified as unsatisfactory. With the quality of its waters, the Federal Republic is in the upper midfield in a European comparison. Austria took the top spot with around 98 percent of bathing spots with excellent water quality, followed by Malta, Greece and Croatia.
The Copenhagen-based EEA analyzed data on 21,859 bodies of water in Europe for the annual report. The report covers bathing waters in the 27 EU countries as well as in Albania and Switzerland. The authority looked at the pollution of the water with faecal bacteria, which can lead to diseases in humans.
