In summer, many people flock to the bathing lakes in the country. But how safe is it to go swimming there? An interactive map reveals where it is better not to go swimming in order to avoid high levels of bacteria.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has again published its extensive report on the quality of bathing water in Europe. A total of more than 22,000 lakes, rivers and beaches were checked for this, in Germany alone there were almost 2,300. The good news: around 90 percent of the waters have excellent conditions for swimming.
However, there are also 14 bathing areas in Germany that were classified as poor, including inland and coastal waters. The reason: too many questionable bacteria in the water. You can check where these are with the interactive map of the EEA.
Start the web app with the map (link to CHIP.de) directly in your browser and click on a country of your choice on the left, for example “Germany”. You will then find additional information on the quality status to the right of the map. Scroll to zoom into the map, click and drag to move the image section.
Then select one of the points in your region. The blue stand for excellent water quality, the green for sufficient according to EU standards and the red for poor, i.e. not recommended for swimming. Bathing areas marked in gray have not yet been classified.
The data on this map comes from the year before the report was published, in which samples were taken and the water bodies analyzed.
The Federal Environment Agency also offers a similar map (link to CHIP.de), but only for Germany and not as interactive as that of the EEA. Here you click on one of the federal states and you will then be forwarded to the respective website and you will find detailed information and current regulations, often also regarding drinking water.
The water quality can fluctuate a little despite the tested bacterial values. In addition, the EEA can by no means examine all waters in Europe. Therefore, there are a few basic rules that you should still observe when bathing in natural waters:
This article first appeared on Chip.de
