Some 3,000 bathing places in Europe fall foul of EU water quality rules

Date: 16/05/1996

with lakes and rivers proving dirtier than seas, according to a Commission report this week which reveals that more than one-sixth of the bloc's 18,000 swimming zones do not meet clean-water requirements or are not properly monitored. Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard described the results as “entirely unacceptable”.