Better protection for recreational water users?

As monitoring of the UK's bathing waters for the 2001 bathing season begins, Surfers Against Sewage are calling for a whole new approach to water quality assessment and management Europe wide. The surfers argue that the sampling strategy as prescribed in the 1976 Bathing Water Directive does not give a clear or current picture of water quality at Europe's bathing locations and therefore is of little value to water users and beach goers wanting to find the best locations to visit.

SAS campaigners recently returned from a 3 day conference in Brussels, the theme of which was the Bathing Water Directive and its revision. Early indications from the Commission had suggested that the new directive should take a more informative approach, based less on compliance with specific standards and more on management actions designed to reduce exposure of humans to sewage polluted water. The conference, a follow up to the Commissions communication, dealt with a number of issues such as who exactly the directive should protect, the new standards within the directive, who would carry out the monitoring and management actions and exactly what degree of risk is acceptable.

Interesting news came from the World Health Organisation who have been working on guidelines for recreational water use. It looks likely that these guidelines will be utilised by the Commission when they draft their final proposal for consideration by the European Parliament. The WHO approach is based on strong scientific evidence and recognises that in addition to relevant standards for water quality, management action must also be taken to minimise risks to water users. This is in recognition of the fact that a pass/fail rating for a beach is of limited use to water users as water quality can change depending on environmental conditions and the operation of sewage treatment infrastructure.