All but four percent met the EU's minimum standard ("sufficient") and just 1.5 percent were of "poor" quality, the European Environment Agency said in its annual update on the beaches, rivers and lakes that are tested for faecal contamination.

Overall, Europe's bathing waters were of the same standard in 2024 as in the year before.

The EEA monitors more than 22,000 bathing areas for bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and intestinal enterococci, caused essentially by pollutant run-off from livestock farms and household sewage pipes.

"Europeans can confidently bathe in the vast majority of the EU's bathing sites that meet the EU's bathing quality standards," European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said.

The best bathing waters last year were in Cyprus, where 99.2 percent were of excellent quality, followed by Bulgaria with 97.9 percent, Greece with 97 and Croatia with 95.2.

The EU-wide average was 85 percent.

Albania came bottom in the ranking, with just 16 percent of excellent quality bathing waters -- a drop of more than 25 percentage points over the space of a year.

Poland was second from bottom at 58.1 percent -- a slight improvement from 2023.

In general, beaches were cleaner than rivers and lakes because of seawater's better capacity for renewal.

Many of central Europe's inland bathing areas are found in relatively small lakes, ponds and rivers, which are more susceptible than coastal areas to short-term pollution caused by heavy rains, the EEA said.

The agency said climate change was expected to increase the intensity and frequency of various extreme weather events, including heavy rains.

"In turn, these events will impact bathing water quality through pollution from sewer overflows, floods or surface run-off.

"This will come with corresponding potential increased health risks for bathers," it said on its website.

The EEA no longer collates data on bathing water in the UK, which left the bloc.

But the national Environment Agency found that in 2024, just 64.2 percent of England's bathing waters were "excellent" and 8.2 percent failed to meet the minimum standard and were classified as "poor".

British water companies, privatised since 1989, have repeatedly come under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.

EU members meanwhile are obliged to monitor popular bathing places from May to September and rank the water quality as excellent, good, sufficient or poor.

Of the 321 bathing sites that were recorded as poor in 2023, a fifth had improved by last year.

In such cases, authorities must shut the area to bathers the following year and take steps to reduce pollution and health hazards before they can re-open.

cbw/jp/gil/giv

Waters