The international Blue Flag label is a standard indicating perfect bathing conditions, and this standrard is internationally recongnized to indicate bathing conditions to the swimmers but as well to discriminate between touristic locations. The Dutch union ANWB looks after the interests of people regarding recreational themes in the Netherlands. They operate independently and perform monitoring on water quality to hand out the Blue flag label to municipalities. Municipalities can be in need of a second opinion in case no label was given.
In 2007 new standards to the bathing water directive the were set by the EU, and Wageningen IMARES performed a study to judge this new standards and its related monitoring strategy. This pilot study was excecuted at 52 Dutch lakes across the Netherlands, at both official and non- offical bathing locations. None of these locatins were in bad condition regarding bacteria countings.
Not only “standard water quality monitoring” was performed, but as well studies to relate point sources to the water quality. Therefor, assessments of bathing water quality in relation to combined sewer overflows, harbours and number of bathers were made. At several municipalities facing occasional difficulites with bathing water quality field monitoring was performed. It was concluded that all sources could play an important role in bactreia loading of bathing araes but are as well highly variable in time. Needs for quick monitoring strategies and case specific measures were pointed out.