Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation, SDG 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition and SDG 15 on protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of land.

Among other things, SDG 6 calls for ensuring universal access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, and ending open defecation. It also aims at improving water quality and water-use efficiency and encouraging sustainable abstractions and supply of freshwater. SDG 2 seeks to end hunger and malnutrition, and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. SDG 15 seeks to protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial, inland water and mountain ecosystems.

Indicator can be considered as part of the global SDG indicator 6.3.2 "Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality".

Protection of water resources, water ecosystems and of drinking and bathing water is at the cornerstone of EU environmental policy, as confirmed in the 7th Environment Action Programme. EU water policy provides a framework to comprehensively address water protection and for achieving good status for inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. According to the Drinking Water Directive, a maximum concentration of 50 mg/L of nitrate in groundwater that is used for drinking water is allowed. The Nitrates Directive requires the designation of vulnerable zones based on this threshold for all waters including groundwater.

Indicator refers to concentrations of nitrate (NO₃) in groundwater, measured as milligrams per litre (mg NO₃/L). Data are taken from well samples and aggregated to annual average values.

Nitrate can persist in groundwater for a long time and accumulate at a high level through inputs from anthropogenic sources (mainly agriculture). The EU drinking water standard is limited to 50 mg NO₃/L to avoid threats to human health.

Only complete series after inter/extrapolation are presented. Complete series 2000 – 2015 are based on a total of 1369 groundwater bodies distributed over the following countries (number of bodies in parentheses): Austria (14), Belgium (38), Bulgaria (40), Cyprus (6), Czechia (64), Denmark (110), Estonia (20), Finland (30), France (458), Germany (247), Ireland (85), Italy (5), Lithuania (2), Portugal (10), Slovakia (16), Spain (47), United Kingdom (126), Switzerland (30) and Serbia (21).

mg NO₃ per litre.

Calendar year.

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in section “Annexes”).

EEA (Waterbase database)

Data source: EEA Waterbase database on the status and quality of Europe's rivers.

Data provider: European Environment Agency (EEA)

Every year

The indicator is updated annually.

> T+2 years

Timeliness of indicator dissemination is not specified.

< 75% EU MS or no EU aggregate

Data are presented for all EU Member States except Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia & Sweden; plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Serbia.

> 75% EU MS

The data for the reporting countries are only comparable within the limits of the weighting of the different number of samples per country.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See table  sdg_06_40

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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