Adriatic Sea

• 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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