Healthy dip

A step in the right direction< the European Parliament has voted for more stringent bathing water quality standards at all waterbodies on the continent. The new legislation will simultaneously streamline water quality testing and make the results known to the public, both at bathing areas (mostly beaches) and online.

The legislation comes into force from 2008. It will introduce four categories for ranking seawater -- excellent, good, sufficient and poor. By 2015, European Union (eu) countries will have to ensure that their bathing areas reach at least the 'sufficient' standard.

Bathing water standards are based on the threat from illnesses like an upset stomach. Under the current rules, the risk must not exceed 12-15 per cent. But the revised directive will reduce the figure to 8 per cent for the 'sufficient' category, 5 per cent for the 'good' category and 3 per cent for the 'excellent' category. Water quality with a risk factor of more than 8 per cent will be considered 'poor' and unfit for bathing.

According to the European Commission (ec), bathing water quality will be improved by implementing eu 's existing Water Framework Directive. The directive requires good standards for all waterbodies through community action. It states that member states should put in place ecosystem-based river basin management plans including an analysis of the river basin's characteristics, a review of the impact of human activity and an economic analysis of water use in the basin. This integrated approach applied upstream will improve the water quality downstream, and ultimately in the sea.

The new directive will require only two parameters -- intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli -- to be monitored. According to ec, this will focus resources on the monitoring of those parameters that constitute a real threat to human health. On the other hand, the old directive, introduced in 1976, required the monitoring of 17 parameters including heavy metals.