Bathing waters - Introduction

In our country exists an important tradition in the recreational use of Waters, whether marine or continental ones, due to the good weather and the longitude of our coasts. The bathing zones are basically used in the Summer period in a recess way and for the exercise of nautical sports. This custom is also shared by numerous tourists of other nationalities.

For this reason, the healthcare administration watches over the quality of bathing waters of both types since more than 20 years, with the goal of protecting the health of the citizens.

In March 2006, a new European regulation on the quality of bath waters: Guideline 2006/7/CE (in Spanish), of the European Parliament and the Council, February 15^th 2006, regarding to the management of the quality of bathing waters and for which Guideline 76/160/CEE is repealed. This new regulation updates to the scientific and technical progress the preceding Guideline. Nowadays the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has promoted its transposition to inner Spanish Civil Law by means of the Royal Decree 1341/2007, of October 11^th , by which rules for quality of the bathing waters are established (BOE 257 26/10/2007), that gathers and describes the labours of healthcare vigilance.

Since the entry of Spain in the European Economic Community, in the present day, the European Union, synthesis reports on the bathing waters quality of our beaches and continental waters have been made with a yearly periodicity, sending those reports regularly to the European Union Commission for the drawing up of the annual European report.

The information unit is the bathing waters zone, defined as a geographically delimited area of a municipal district consisting of a beach and its bathing waters.