The Italian sea is increasingly blue and clean. The annual report of the Ministry of Health on the quality of bathing water promotes our country: in 96,6, 2012% of Italian waters resulted compliant with the standards. Only 1,43% of our bathing spots, 61 to be exact, are not in compliance with Directive 2006/7/EC (which classifies waters based on the concentration of intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli). The report is based on data provided by the Regions on 5509 bathing points throughout Italy. In 2011 the bathing points in order were 4,7% lower than in 2012 therefore there has been a marked improvement over time.
As regards the comparison with other European countries, Italy ranks above the average. Its waters are of lower quality than those of Cyprus and Luxembourg, which have 100% excellent bathing points. In Italy the regions that win, for water quality, are Veneto and Emilia Romagna; the worst bathing spots are instead in Lazio (75% compliance) and Abruzzo (84,75%).
