German bathing waters rated excellent again
The bathing season has already begun in many German states and nothing stands in the way of enjoying swimming in the great outdoors this summer. Germany’s bathing water quality remains at a high level. This was confirmed by the EU commission’s report on the quality of European bathing water, which was presented in Brussels on 28 May 2024. Overall, 98 percent of official German bathing waters on lakes, rivers and coasts met the minimum requirements of the EU Bathing Water Directive. In addition, over 96 percent of bathing waters were again awarded with the top marks of ‘excellent’ and ‘good’.
Only seven of the total 2,291 bathing waters in Germany were classified as ‘poor’ in the 2023 season. In 155 cases, bathers were banned from bathing or advised against bathing as a precautionary measure to protect their health. In the most frequent cases, this was due to the occurrence of Cyanobacteria (‘blue-green algae’, 94 times) or for water hygiene reasons (37 times). The cause of inadequate hygienic water quality was mostly due to heavy rainfall events that had carried dirty water into the bodies of water. In a further 24 cases, established predictive and early warning systems warned of possible pollution in bathing waters.
In the 2023 bathing season, 2,291 German bathing water sites were investigated and a total of 13,295 water samples were analysed. Of these bathing water sites, 362 were located on the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, 1,892 on lakes and reservoirs and 37 in inland waters.
The current measurement data for each bathing water site can be viewed online on the websites of the federal states. An overview is available on the UBA website at water quality in bathing waters.
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