Brussels, 15/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 17 July, at 2 p.m., tens of thousands of people will simultaneously jump into about thirty rivers in Europe - a “Big Jump” and a swim, organised in over ten European Union countries in order to show their commitment in the battle for clean water. The event, known as “The First European River Swim Day” is an initiative of the European Rivers Network (ERN) in cooperation with its European partner EEB (European Environmental Bureau) and the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Its first aim is to support application of the directive of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for a Community water policy. The directive calls on Member States to clean up their rivers, lakes and subterranean water to make them fit to have an ecologically good status by 2015. Sunday's campaign allows European citizens to take part in this heavy task and to inform each other of progress made in this field.
The sanitary conditions of most surface water in Europe are deplorable and 50% of them will probably not reach an ecologically good status by 2015. There are some exceptions, however, such as the Rhine and the Elbe, of which the water quality has greatly improved in recent years thanks to the commitment of environmental organisations in those areas.