Poland has been identified as the European Union member state with the lowest proportion of bathing sites achieving 'excellent water quality,' according to a joint

report from the European Environment Agency and the European Commission.

In the latest findings, Cyprus emerged with the highest percentage of bathing sites boasting "excellent water quality." Poland's ranking places it at the bottom of the EU list, only surpassing Albania, which lies outside the EU, according to the report.

The 2023 report assessed bathing water quality across EU member states, Albania, and Switzerland. It revealed that a significant majority of bathing sites met stringent EU standards, with 85.4% rated as 'excellent' and a mere 1.5% categorized as 'poor.'

Coastal bathing sites generally exhibited superior water quality compared to inland sites, with 89% of coastal locations achieving an 'excellent' rating versus 79% for inland waters.

Cyprus led the rankings with an impressive 97.6% of its bathing sites classified as excellent, closely followed by Austria and Croatia. In contrast, Poland and Albania reported the lowest proportions of excellent sites, with Poland recording the poorest performance among EU nations.

Additional countries such as Hungary, Estonia, Belgium, and Romania also reported lower percentages of bathing sites with excellent water quality.

The report detailed that out of Poland's 739 bathing sites, 406 were rated as excellent, while 21 sites received a poor rating. Croatia excelled in the cleanliness of its seawater, followed by Cyprus and Greece.

Conclusively, the report affirmed that bathing is generally safe at most EU sites, meeting minimum quality standards in 96% of cases, despite persistent challenges with surface and groundwater pollution. Photo by user:Pibwl, Wikimedia commons.