Each year, more than 33,000 water samples are taken by regional health agencies. The results of these analyzes confirm the good quality level of bathing water in France.
What is the closest beach to my home? What was the water quality like last season? Where can I go swimming safely? Is the last available test result good or bad? If you want to know in real time the quality of the water in your holiday resort, nothing could be simpler, you just have to go to the website of the ministry in charge of health “bathing.sante.gouv.fr“which contains the results of the quality checks of bathing water carried out by regional health agencies (ARS). The latter also confirmed this Friday the” good level of quality “of bathing water in France.
Only 3.5% of bathing sites of insufficient quality
In fact, during the 2013 bathing season, there are a total of 3,331 checkpoints (1,297 in fresh water and 2,034 in seawater) spread over 1,690 municipalities, in 94 metropolitan and overseas departments. , which were the subject of 33,615 water samples representing more than 66,000 microbiological analyzes.
The same year in which the method provided for by the new European Directive 2006/7 / EC to assess the quality of bathing water entered into force. With it, one of the 4 following quality classes is attributed to bathing water: “insufficient”, “sufficient”, “good” or “excellent”, according to the results of the analyzes obtained during the 4 previous seasons and according to a statistical method, with different quality limits between freshwater and seawater.
And the results of the analyzes carried out in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 taken into account to establish the 2013 ranking will undoubtedly reassure holidaymakers. Thus, in 2013 in France, 88% of bathing sites were classified as excellent or of good quality. Only 3.5% of the French sites where you bathe were classified of insufficient quality, that is to say 116 sites.
Distribution of bathing waters according to their classification in 2013
Source: Directorate General of Health
Polluted water, infectious risk to the key
Regarding the latter sites, it is better to avoid them. Because swimming can present health risks if pollution affects the quality of the water. The main risk is the risk of infection, linked to the presence of pathogenic germs that can be the cause of pathologies in the ENT sphere, the digestive system (gastroenteritis) or the eyes.
And this contamination has multiple origins. Beyond that caused by the bather himself, the pollution of bathing water is most often due to malfunctioning of wastewater collection and treatment works or to heavy rains bringing pollutants by runoff on the land upstream from swimming.
Finally, if you already want to know some of the beaches where you will not have to worry about these risks, know for example that in the Corsica region, almost (except 2) all the sea water has a “good” quality. or “excellent”. This is also the case of the PACA region which can “almost” boast of having the same results as its Corsican neighbor.
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