Moroccan bathing waters compliance with microbiological quality standards has reached 87.06%, said Friday the Department of Environment in its report on 2021 bathing waters quality.

Of 461 sampling sites, 425 were subject to a sufficient number of sampling for classification, the Department’s report wrote, noting that 370 sites were declared in compliance with the microbiological quality standards.

The standard, which aims to establish proactive management of bathing water quality, is based on statistical processing of the results of waters over the last four years and according to four quality criteria namely, “Excellent”, “Good”, “Adequate” and “Poor”.

According to the report, 12.94% of the points are non-compliant (i.e 55 sites spread over 29 beaches) and mainly located in the regions of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Casablanca-Settat, and Rabat-Sale-Kenitra.

The number of beaches monitored as part of this program has increased from 79 in 2002 to 175 beaches in 2020. Monitoring campaigns are carried out annually during the summer season from May to September.