Dermatitis, gastrointestinal disorders, ear infections… Bathing in poor quality water can lead to health problems.
- The Ministry of Health has set up a website that allows you to directly assess whether the water you want to bathe in is of good quality.
- To do this, simply click on an interactive map and zoom in on the place where you are spending your vacation.
- “Bathing water of poor quality can cause health problems (dermatitis, gastrointestinal problems, ear infections, etc.)” indicates the Ministry of Health.
In order to avoid contracting diseases this summer, it is best to check the quality of the water before swimming. To do this, the Ministry of Health has designed maps that indicate this information very precisely thanks to a zoom (to see here).
Bathing waters classified into 6 groups
For all bathing waters subject to assessment, one of the following 6 qualifiers is assigned to the area: “excellent”, “good”, “sufficient”, “insufficient”, “unclassified site” and “prohibition”, the last three implying that you should definitely not go for a dip.
This ranking is based on the analysis of two microbiological parameters “Escherichia coli” And “intestinal enterococci”, with separate values for seawater and freshwater.
The presence of these indicators in water indicates contamination of fecal origin, which may be more or less severe depending on the concentrations recorded. “These microbial germs do not in themselves constitute a danger for bathers at generally high thresholds but may indicate, by their presence, the simultaneous presence of pathogenic germs”, the Ministry of Health said in a press release.
“Bathing water of poor quality can cause health problems (dermatitis, gastrointestinal problems, ear infections, etc.) which are most often benign, but which are likely to particularly expose the most vulnerable people”, he emphasizes.
“Avoid swimming after violent storms”
During the summer period, it is therefore recommended to:
– swim in areas that are subject to health controls by the authorities.
– Find out about water quality and respect swimming restrictions.
– do not swim after violent storms which may have led to uncontrolled discharges.
“The results of the microbiological analyses carried out during the 2023 bathing season on 3,361 bathing sites (1,286 in fresh water and 2,075 in sea water) show that nearly 90.4% of them are of excellent or good quality”, summarizes the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, 94.5% of bathing sites have been classified as being of at least quality “sufficient” and are therefore in compliance with the European directive dealing with this subject.
On the other hand, 87 bathing sites could not be assessed due to an insufficient number of samples to classify them and are therefore listed in the category “Insufficient samples.”
