Bathing waters
Improving and championing the water quality of our designated bathing waters is a priority for us. Here you can learn about our bathing waters and what we’re doing to protect them.
Our role in improving bathing waters
With the help of our partners across the region, we’re working hard to make a positive difference by reducing storm overflow releases, upgrading our network, tackling illegally connected private pipes and year-round regular water quality testing.
Storm overflows are not the only thing to impact bathing water quality. Other sources of pollution like road, farming and industrial surface water run-off, along with waste from other water and beach users - even dogs and seabirds- all make a big difference.
Our dedicated Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force use nature-base solutions to limit the amount of surface water entering our network to reduce storm overflows and protect bathing waters, rivers and other waterways across our region.
Our report and plan
Our annual Bathing Water Report provides an update on bathing water classifications seen below and what we're doing to improve them while our Bathing Water Improvement Plan outlines our approach to improving designated bathing water quality at priority sites.
Filter by year:
2023-24
Bathing Water Improvement Plan
2023-24
Bathing Water Season Report 2024
2022 - 23
Bathing Water Season Report 2023
2021 - 22
Bathing Water Season Update 2022
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Designated bathing waters
Our region has 87 designated bathing waters. Although our work improves the health of our rivers and seas, designated bathing waters are those classified by the Environment Agency each year through their weekly water quality sampling programme, taking place between May and September.
To view the Environment Agency’s own data for each site, browse the county-by-county lists below. This is sourced directly from the Environment Agency's website.
The City of Brighton and Hove
Rother
Hastings
Wealden
Eastbourne
Lewes
Thanet
Dover
Folkestone and Hythe
Swale
Canterbury
City of Portsmouth
Fareham
Havant
New Forest
Rivers and Seas Watch – near-real-time storm overflow updates
The 700 miles of coastline in our region are the lifeblood of many of the communities we serve – whether through tourism, business, or leisure.
Over recent years, we have invested millions of pounds to improve the quality of the bathing waters in our region.
You can also use our Rivers and Seas Watch service to find out more information about storm overflow releases. This interactive map provides near-real-time data about release activity scross our entire region.
