European bathing water quality report: public bathing waters in Finland are of high quality
It is safe to swim in the waters of public beaches in Finland according to the European Environment Agency's (EEA) recently published bathing water report. The majority of bathing waters in Finland, more than 95 per cent, were classified as being of excellent or good quality, which is three percentage points higher than in 2019.
Five beaches, or approximately two per cent, were categorised in the lowest acceptable ‘sufficient water quality’ class. In addition, the water quality of four beaches (1.3%) was described as poor.
Higher percentage of inland and coastal bathing waters in the best quality class
In Finland, an increasing number of inland and coastal bathing waters have been classified as excellent or good. These two top quality classes included over 97 per cent of all inland beaches. Nearly 90 per cent of all coastal bathing waters were classified as excellent or good, which is 10 percentage points more than in 2019.
The positive statistic trend in bathing water quality is partly explained by the fact that a sufficient number of samples have been taken from more and more beaches, which makes it possible to determine their quality class. Only five beaches in Finland were left without a quality classification, as water quality had not been monitored for long enough yet. Measures to improve the quality of bathing water had been taken on one of these beaches, and the rest were new ones.
“Unfortunately, the data also includes some beaches with a poor classification. I hope that the cause of contamination on these beaches can be found and that it's possible to take measures to improve the water quality”, says Outi Zacheus, Senior Planning Officer at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
Basic data on individual beaches and bathing water classifications based on monitoring are available on EEA's online service. According to the information gathered in the service, Cyprus, Austria and Greece had the most beaches classified as excellent.
During the swimming season in the summer, information on the quality of bathing waters will be provided at the beaches and on the municipalities’ websites, for example. This information will not be updated in EEA's online service during the swimming season.
Occurrence of blue-green algae not included in bathing water quality classification
Even though municipal health protection authorities monitor the occurrence of blue-green algae in bathing water in Finland, the abundance or frequency of blue-green algae occurrences is not taken into account when defining bathing water quality according to the bathing water directive.
“You can find information on the blue-green algae situation posted at the beaches and on municipalities’ websites. Since the occurrence of blue-green algae in bathing water may even vary day to day, swimmers should assess the state of the bathing water before getting in. You should avoid swimming in water with blue-green algae”, reminds Zacheus.
The report on European bathing water quality classifies the quality of bathing water on the beaches where the water’s concentrations of bacteria indicating intestinal contamination have been monitored regularly over four swimming seasons. The monitoring of bacteria concentrations enables, for example, assessing the impact of wastewater on the bathing water.
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare reports the results of municipal health protection authorities’ bathing water monitoring to the European Commission annually. The recently published report is based on the monitoring in the swimming seasons of 2017–2020. The report consolidates country-specific bathing water quality summaries and the monitoring results of altogether 22,000 European beaches.
In the summer of 2020, Finland had a total of 303 public beaches, 225 of which were inland and 78 coastal beaches.
Further information
European bathing water quality report 2020
European Environment Agency
Bathing water
THL
Outi Zacheus
Senior Planning Officer
THL
tel. +358 (0)29 524 6374
[email protected]
