Bathing water quality

Ensuring safe bathing is also a health issue for the city.

Beach surveillance by coastal lifeguards goes hand in hand with monitoring of bathing water quality.
A “daily active management” system, in addition to the regulatory surveillance carried out by the Agence Régionale de Santé, enables the mayor to preventively close the bathing area in the event of suspected bacteriological pollution.

Anglet informs

A sign at the entrance to each bathing area describes its profile, its water quality classification and any preventive closure orders.
Find the beach profiles in pdf format on each “beach” page of the website.

An application specifically for the beaches of the Basque Coast, providing real-time information on bathing conditions.
Consult bathing conditions, flags, water and air temperatures, and tides for the beaches of the Basque Country on : KALILO.
The data is updated daily by Anglet’s lifeguards during the surveillance season.

The current European directive on bathing water quality (Directive 2006/7/EC) requires a bathing profile to be drawn up for each bathing area declared by the Commune.

The profile is therefore a mandatory regulatory document, designed to prevent health risks and improve bathing water quality. It consists of listing all the elements likely to have a direct or indirect impact on the bathing area, and defining management measures (monitoring or pollution detection methods) to assess and control pollution risks.

This document is public. It can be consulted at the Direction de l’Environnement, de la Transition Ecologique et Energétique – Site d’Izadia – La Barre.

A summary of a bathing area’s profile is displayed on the information panels at the aid stations. It includes a physical description of the beach and lists all sources of pollution, which may lead to the temporary closure of the bathing area or to the adoption of appropriate management measures to protect the health of users. It also traces the history of bathing water quality at the site.

To ensure that our water complies with its standards, Europe imposes health controls. In France, the Ministry of Health carries out this monitoring via the Regional Health Agencies (ARS).

From mid-April to the end of October, ARS carries out unannounced sampling, two to four times a month, at all Anglet’s supervised bathing areas.

Over the course of a season, La Barre, Les Sables d’Or and La Petite Chambre d’Amour are inspected around twenty times. Ten or so checks are carried out at Les Cavaliers, Les Corsaires, L’Océan and La Madrague. As for Marinella, which has the longest surveillance period of the year, some fifteen analyses are carried out.

These bacteriological analyses are carried out by approved departmental laboratories. The bacteria tested are E-Coli and enterococci. The results, obtained 48 hours after sampling, must be displayed in two places: the first-aid posts and the town hall. Bathing water quality is classified as “excellent”, “good”, “sufficient” or “insufficient”, depending on the results of the previous four seasons.

At the end of the 2023 season, the 8 above-mentioned bathing areas will be classified as Excellent Quality.

Daily checks in Anglet

And that’s not all. Since 1999, Anglet has had a self-monitoring system for sources of pollution and bathing water quality, in addition to regulatory vigilance.

It is carried out by the service provider Suez-Rivages Pro Tech as part of a public contract commissioned by the Communauté d’Agglomération Pays Basque for all the coastal communities on the Basque Coast. Analyses are carried out daily from May 15 to September 30, on four beaches identified as the most sensitive to possible bacteriological pollution. These are La Barre, Les Cavaliers, Les Sables d’Or and La Petite Chambre d’Amour.

A measurement point is also set up in the Adour, at Pont Grenet, to monitor the quality of the river water, which is the main cause of deterioration in bathing water at Anglet beaches.

Samples taken at 5 o’clock

Suez-Rivages Pro Tech takes these samples at 5 a.m. every day. The results, known by 9:30 a.m., determine whether or not the bathing area can be opened. In the event of bacteriological thresholds being exceeded, a municipal decree prohibits all bathing and boating activities until further notice. At the same time, a counter-analysis is automatically launched at 10am. If the result confirms the first analysis, the beach will remain closed for the rest of the day. If, on the other hand, the result is favorable, the sand will be returned to bathers from 2 p.m. onwards.

A decision-making tool

In 2017, the City entered into an innovation partnership with Agglomération Pays Basque and Suez-Rivages Pro Tech to develop a real-time water quality predictive tool.

This new model integrates a wider range of parameters (current, tide, waves, wind, rain, salinity, Adour flow rate, wastewater treatment plant discharge data, etc.) and is particularly useful when measured levels approach regulatory thresholds. In such cases, it is important to assess the risk of water degradation over the course of the day, and hour by hour, taking into account the impact of these other environmental factors on bacterial survival. This expertise enables us to anticipate a quicker return to “normal” bathing conditions, and a targeted reopening when appropriate.

This predictive model also operates during the winter period, to predict the risk of bacteriological contamination outside the beach surveillance period. This forecast, for user information only, can be consulted via the Kalilo application.

Several labels

Bathing water quality

On July 28, 2021, the town received renewal of its “Démarche qualité des eaux de baignade” certification for the eight beaches under the supervision of the coastal lifeguards. It is awarded for three years by AES certification, and is subject to an annual surveillance audit. This label, created by the French Ministry of the Environment, rewards the local authority for all the real-time monitoring and information systems put in place to protect the health of bathers. For Anglet, bathing water quality represents a major ecological and tourism issue. It has held this certification since June 2017.

Blue Flag Label

In 2024, Anglet’s 8 supervised beaches were awarded the Blue Flag. This international certification rewards the town’s commitment to sustainable tourism. The label takes into account the quality of bathing water, urban water treatment, the collective sanitation system, household waste treatment, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, signage and environmental education.