Teams from Natural Resources Wales are visiting beaches across Wales to take the first of over 2000 samples of the 2014 bathing water season.
Every year, the organisation tests each one of the 102 bathing waters 20 times during the season, which runs from 15 May to 30 September.
The water samples are taken away, analysed in a specialist laboratory and assessed against a set criteria for bathing water.
At the end of the season the results will be compiled for each bathing water and used to assess the water as ‘poor’, ‘sufficient’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. This will determine the classification for next year.
New standards introduced by the EU are twice as tough as those used previously. Current predictions indicate that 97% of beaches in Wales are on track to meet the ‘sufficient’ standard next year, with 70% of those predicted to meet the ‘excellent’ standard.
Andy Schofield, from Natural Resources Wales said:
“We’ve done a lot of work to improve the quality of our bathing waters, and combined with huge investment by water companies, our bathing waters are now cleaner than they’ve been in over 20 years.
“However, we cannot be complacent, and there is still work to do to improve our water quality further, particularly in tackling smaller, less obvious sources of pollution from our urban and rural environments which can have a cumulative impact.
“We’ll continue to work with water companies, local authorities, industry, farmers and communities to make this happen.”
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
ERG, the leading supplier of odour control systems and industrial gas cleaning & thermal systems, has been awarded the coveted King’s Award for Enterprise.
Welsh Water’s new artificial intelligence-driven tool, ORAI, has been shortlisted for three categories at the prestigious British Data Awards 2026 – underscoring the company’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to deliver better outcome for customers.
Barhale has completed work on two separate Rapid Action Taskforce Spills projects it is carrying out for Severn Trent.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.