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• The quality of bathing water in Spain is excellent in almost 90% of its sampling points
• Spain is the country with the most blue flag beaches in the world, with 638 beaches
• Up to 25% of the waste on our beaches is almost directly related to tourism

Would you like to know what the waters are like on the beaches in your holiday area this summer? Dataestur makes it easy to check the data from the national sea water quality report using a dashboard, which we will explain how to use. In addition, the post explores other sources of interest such as the Association for Environmental and Consumer Education, responsible for the Blue Flag awards and the programme for monitoring marine litter on beaches developed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, with the aim of providing insight into the quality of water on the beaches of the Spanish coast.

Nearly 90% of bathing water in Spain is of excellent quality according to the latest measurements from sampling points used by the Ministry of Health to prepare the National Report on Bathing Water Quality. Overall, more than 95% are at least of a "good" quality and only 1.7% of the sampling points fail to meet the water quality standards.

The Dataestur dashboard collects water quality measurements from 1990 to the latest update with data from 2023. Below you can see the number of bathing areas analysed by autonomous community, as well as the percentage of their sampling points that have excellent quality. The maps provide information at the provincial level.

The report takes into account that there are many more bathing areas, whether continental or inland. Likewise, the maps show that the quality of bathing waters on the coast is excellent in all cases overall, with only two provinces (Málaga and Asturias) falling slightly short of at least 90% of their sampling points with excellent quality.

Inland provinces, on the other hand, have far fewer bathing areas and therefore the effect of a possible negative measurement at a sampling point has a greater impact on the aggregate calculation for the province. In fact, only Cáceres and Ourense have more than 15 bathing areas. Overall, 56% of the inland water sampling points showed excellent bathing water quality.

The Datatestur dashboard can be used to monitor the quality of water throughout the year, providing full details of the measurements and values obtained at sampling points in all provinces, making it easier for tourism managers at the destination to monitor the values. The analysis can even be completed beach by beach and allows comparison between municipalities and bathing areas. There is also a map viewer that can be used to browse all points in which the bathing water quality is assessed.

NB: the national report on bathing water quality is published once a year by the Ministry of Health. The quality of bathing water is determined by health checks carried out during the bathing season (the period with the highest number of expected bathers and which is designated by each autonomous region). These controls assess two microbiological parameters (intestinal enterococcus and Escherichia coli) and parameters such as transparency, colour, mineral oils, presence of jellyfish or organic remains, among others. According to this data, the beaches are classified as "excellent", "good", "sufficient", "insufficient" or "unrated".  The data is published for free on the National Bathing Water Information System, Náyade

15% of the blue flags on beaches around the world are in Spain. In total, there are 638 beaches recognised with blue flags in the country, with the most notable being the Valencian Community (158 beaches) and Andalusia (156).

The Blue Flag programme only takes into account beaches with a bathing water quality ranked as "excellent" in the national report of the Ministry of Health. This year, 91% of the beaches opting to become part of the programme have been recognised with the award. In addition to the sanitary control of the waters, the programme assesses criteria of safety, accessibility, services and preservation of the environment and its biodiversity, for example by evaluating the level of non-excessive occupation on the beach and the protection of dune areas and seagrass meadows.

The chart shows the distribution of Blue Flag beaches by autonomous region and the Provincial breakdown of the number of Blue Flag beaches and the kilometres of beaches recognised with the award.

Around 25% of marine litter found on Spain's beaches is closely linked to tourism. 17% comes from tourist activity on the beach itself and around 8% comes from trade and hospitality activities. This is the data of the latest annual report of the Sea litter monitoring programme of Spanish beaches prepared by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge with 2022 data.

The programme carries out an annual study of the presence of waste on Spain's beaches by sampling a selection of beaches analysed four times a year (winter, spring, summer and autumn, in order to identify possible seasonal variations). The beaches are distributed in five marine demarcations that represent the entire country: North Atlantic zone (coast of Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias and the Basque Country); South Atlantic area (referring to the coast of Huelva and Cadiz); Strait and Alboran region (including beaches of Mediterranean Andalusia); Levante-Balearic Islands zone (coasts of the Region of Murcia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands and Catalonia); and the maritime zone of the Canary Islands. In the last exercise, 29 beaches were assessed.

The data also shows that most marine litter on beaches originates from land-based activities. These activities include beach tourism, shops and bars/restaurants, agriculture and construction, among others. Likewise, the most common waste on our beaches is, very prominently, plastic.