Bathing waters in Northern Ireland

One of our responsibilities is to ensure our coastal waters are of high enough quality for the general public to bathe in. Water Quality Inspectors collect the water samples on our behalf. The samples are then analysed by the Water Management Unit based in Lisburn.

The bathing season runs from June through to mid-September during which water quality will be assessed on 20 different occasions. Bathing Water Quality information is updated weekly during the bathing season and displayed in the format of colour-coded posters. These posters are displayed on this page. These posters are circulated to all beach operators for public display.

The 2012 Bathing Water Quality posters can be viewed below:

• 2012 Northern Ireland (North Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 109Kb)
• 2012 Northern Ireland (Antrim Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 87Kb)
• 2012 Northern Ireland (North Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 96Kb)
• 2012 Northern Ireland (South Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 87Kb)

The 2011 Bathing Water Quality posters can be viewed below:

• 2011 Northern Ireland (North Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 67Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (Antrim Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 46Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (North Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 48Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (South Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 49Kb)

2012 EC Bathing Water Directive Compliance for Northern Ireland

A summary of the 2012 EC Bathing Water Directive compliance is provided in the table below. The data supporting this assessment is being prepared for web publication and will be available in the near future. Equivalent 2011 data is available at Bathing Water Quality Data page.

Summary

22 of Northern Ireland's 23 identified bathing waters achieved the mandatory water quality standards of the EC Bathing Water Directive ie passed the Directive achieving Good water quality. (96% compliance)

16 out of 23 (70%) achieved the tighter guideline requirements of the Directive ie passed the Directive achieving Excellent water quality.

Table of Northern Ireland Bathing Water Directive Compliance