Crystal clear sea

The Croatian Ministry for Environment has published its annual report for 2008 on the quality of the sea water on the Croatian Adriatic beaches.

Testing took place on 890 points across the Croatian Adriatic and no point of polluted sea water has been found. The sea water in Croatian Adriatic is more than suitable for swimming and of high quality that meets the stringent criteria laid down by the international guidelines on the quality of water on sea/ocean beaches.

The program monitoring the quality of water in the ocean beaches began almost twenty years ago and over the years it has passed through a number of improvements. The program tests the quality of water in the sea beaches are funded from the budgets of coastal counties. Testing must be carried out by authorised and independent laboratories.

Monitoring the quality of water included sampling and analysis of the sea water across 890 different locations on the Croatian Adriatic. Most of these locations are used for swimming and recreation by the public. The report is published annually informing the public about the sea water quality.

The main objective of this particular annual survey is; the public health education, sustainable management of beaches to preserve their natural characteristics, and prompt identification and prevention of the possible pollution sources.

The Croatian coast is almost 6000 kilometres long, full of sandy and pebbly beaches that represent 5, 4% of all coast, and survey hasn’t found an area on the Croatian Adriatic that doesn’t meet strict international guidelines.

Source: The Ministry for Environment