Water quality at Croatian beaches tested – where is the best

Testing of swimming water quality at beaches along the Croatian coast completed

28 June 2022 – The most recent testing of swimming water quality at beaches along the Croatian coast, which was the third this year, has been completed. 

The quality monitoring, which took place from 31 May until 24 June, revealed once again that Croatia remains home to one of the cleanest waters for swimming in Europe.

The swimming water quality at 1011 of the nation’s beaches was tested and then graded into four categories – excellent, good, sufficient, and poor.

Out of all 1011 beaches tested, 992, or 98.12% of them, were declared ‘excellent’ quality. 12 beaches were graded as ‘good’, whilst only 7 beach was graded as ‘sufficient’. 

Not one beach failed to test in the ‘poor’ category.

The Lika-Senj, Zadar and Šibenik-Knin counties were three counties where the results of tests at all measuring points showed that the sea is of ‘excellent’ quality for swimming, Morski.hr reported. 

Rab

In Istria, out of 217 samples, 215 were excellent, one was rated as good, while one received a ‘satisfactory’ rating. In the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, out of samples from 265 beaches, 260 were of excellent quality, while 5 beaches the sea is of ‘good’ quality.

In the Split-Dalmatia County, 159 beaches has ‘excellent’ sea quality, 4 beaches were rated ‘good’ and 4 beaches where the sea received a ‘satisfactory’ rating.

The situation is similar in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, where 117 beaches have ‘excellent’ sea quality, two beaches with ‘good’ quality and also two where the sea is of ‘satisfactory’ quality.

Dubrovnik

Testing will be conducted periodically throughout the summer. Assessments are determined on the basis of criteria defined by Regulation on sea bathing water quality and the EU Directive on the management of bathing water quality.

Croatia has been testing swimming water quality since 1989 and has dominated the top three places in Europe for water quality together with Cyprus and Malta.

You can see more details of the testing here.