According to the results of a study by the Flemish Environment Agency (VMM) that was published on Tuesday bathing water quality is good in our region. However, concentrations of blue-green algae are still turning up at some locations.
Almost all official bathing areas, both coastal and inland, are rated a being “good” or “excellent”. In 2023, there were 101 official bathing waters. 41 of these are at the coast and 60 at inland locations. Among the bathing areas at the coast, 66% were judged to have excellent water quality. Inland bathing areas fared even better with 80% considered to have excellent water quality.
At just one site water quality was only rated as being “acceptable”. All the remaining bathing sites were rated as having “good” water quality. VMM’s Katrien Smet told VRT News that “The most important thing is that the water along the entire coast is safe to swim in”.
Last year, a temporary bathing ban was brought in on 25 occasions due to the presence of blue-green algae. Ms Smet told VRT News that “The increase in the number of discoveries of blue-green algae is particularly striking. Despite the less pleasant weather in 2023, there were around the same number of temporary bans as in 2022.”
In 2021 blue-green algae resulted in just 7 temporary bathing bans being introduced.