99.3 percent rating on water quality.

Eastern countries need to improve.

Austria’s lakes and rivers have been given a clean bill of health by the European Commission.

In its latest report on water quality the commission said 99.3 percent of the water bodies
fulfilled the criteria for safe bathing, an increase of several percent over the previous year.

Only two bathing areas out of the 268 tested were regarded as unsatisfactory. The
monitoring of water quality in sea, coasts, rivers and lakes to protect bathers began in the
1970’s. Europe wide, 89 percent of rivers and lakes met health standards while 96 percent of
beaches were considered safe for swimming. Austria has no coasts so all its bathing areas
are, therefore, in freshwater zones.

Neighboring Germany received a 98 percent rating in the report of the European Commission.
Other countries with a 93 percent rating or better are France, Italy Greece, Spain, Sweden
and Denmark.

Problems still remain in east European countries, but the report says the water quality is
better than last year.