In a bi-yearly test conducted by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra), most of the beaches in England have been deemed as suitable for bathing. There was a concern that a good part of beaches would be unusable for bathing purpose after UK recorded one of the wettest summers in years.

In England, there are 414 bathing sites according to the agency. Only 9 have failed to live up to the mandatory quality of water. The failed ones include Staithes, Sandsend and Runswick Bay in North Yorkshire, Morecambe South and St Anne's in Lancashire, Bude Summerleaze in Cornwall and Instow and Mothecombe in Devon.

In the year 2005, 99.5% of the beaches had passed the mandatory quality required compared to this year’s 97.8%. Defra feels that the downslide in quality of water in bathing sites is due to perennial rainfall during summer. Environment minister Phil Woolas has stated that the present water quality is far better than it used to be 15 years back.

To improve the quality of water, measures need to be taken to upgrade the sewerage infrastructure and find a solution to avert water pollution from farming and urban sources.

Meanwhile, water quality standards are likely to be tightened by 2015.

via BBC