UK waters are too polluted to swim in – but European countries offer answers

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Both agricultural runoff and the release of untreated sewage are leading causes of river pollution in the UK.

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The ConversationThe Conversation
URL: 
https://theconversation.com/uk-waters-are-too-polluted-to-swim-in-but-european-countries-offer-answers-202013https://theconversation.com/uk-waters-are-too-polluted-to-swim-in-but-european-countries-offer-answers-202013
Retrieved on: 
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Information
Tags: 
Environment Agency, Water quality, Civil service commission, Water pollution, Labour, Method, Durrães e Tregosa, German, Oxygen, COVID-19, Sewage, Nutrient, World, Research, World Bank, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Water supply, Government, Plant, US, Swimming, Labour Party, River, Sanitation, Water, Adriatic Sea, Anomaly, Bacteria, Brexit, Environment, Health, Virus, House, Education, European Commission, Lake, Sewage treatment, Aquaculture
Geotags: 
GREECE, CROATIA, ITALY, MALTA, ENGLAND, ALBANIA, GERMANY, RUHR, COPENHAGEN, EUROPE, AUSTRIA, BERLIN, UK
Summary
Key Points: 
  • Both agricultural runoff and the release of untreated sewage are leading causes of river pollution in the UK.
  • Between 1991 and 2019, the percentage of Europe’s bathing waters with “excellent” water quality increased from 53% to 85%.
  • In several countries, including Austria, Greece and Malta, more than 95% of bathing sites are now classified as excellent.
  • So, what lessons can the UK learn from European countries that have cleaned up their act?

1. Croatia

    • The practice of discharging untreated sewage into the Adriatic Sea reduced the quality of Croatia’s coastal waters.
    • But between 2009 and 2015, a World Bank loan worth US$87.5 million (£70m) funded a project to improve sanitation in Croatia.
    • This included the construction of 14 new wastewater treatment plants and the installation of 162km of sewerage networks.

2. Germany

    • The Ruhr river in western Germany flows through the country’s major industrial Ruhr region.
    • In 1971, bathing in the river was banned due to heavy pollution, both from sewage and chemical effluent from the local steel and mining industries.

3. Albania

    • This was largely the consequence of the country’s underdeveloped water supply and sewerage network.
    • But in recent years, bathing water quality in coastal areas of Albania has improved significantly.
    • Over two-thirds of the country’s bathing sites are now of excellent quality, including some of the country’s biggest tourist destinations, such as Durrës in western Albania.

4. Italy

    • The water quality in Lake Varese, a small lake in the north of Italy, had deteriorated over a long period since the 1960s.
    • This was the result of extensive algal blooms that were likely caused by nutrient enrichment from industrial effluent.

A major political issue

    • Water quality is now a major political issue in the UK.
    • The leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, recently accused the government of “turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer”.
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