The increasing popularity of cold water swimming, surfing and paddle-boarding means they quality of water in rivers and lakes now must be tested all year round.
A new report has found regulations to protect people swimming require updating.
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) says rules currently being followed are “outdated” and it has issued 11 recommendations to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).
The OEP found regulatory requirements have “not kept pace with the changing ways in which society uses rivers, lakes and coastal waters for recreation”.
The report says the regulations focus on swimming and any future review should consider expanding that to include activities such as surfing, paddle-boarding and wind-surfing.
It also points out that the regulations focus on a fixed ‘bathing season’, which does not reflect the year-round nature of the activities.
Any review, the report added, should consider the approach to sampling water quality, with a view to increasing the number of sample points on long stretches of water and being more open about monitoring decisions.
A separate and recent OEP report on a related topic, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive NI Regulations, found that progress is not on track to meet the environmental objectives set for most identified waters.
Dame Glenys Stacey, chair of the OEP, said healthy rivers, lakes, and seas supported a healthy economy, and allowed nature to thrive.
Good quality open water was also increasingly important for human health, she added.
“With more people participating in outdoor water pursuits, it is ever more necessary to make sure that enjoying Northern Ireland’s waters is not just fun, but good for us, rather than a risk to our health and wellbeing,” she said.
“We have taken an in-depth look at the Bathing Water NI Regulations and found that they have fallen out of step with the needs of today.”
Regulations, she added, originated from developments in the 1970s and 1980s and had not kept pace with the evolving ways in which waters are now used for recreational purposes, or with public expectations.
“It is fair to say that the regulations have led to significant improvements in bathing water quality since they were introduced around three decades ago, and we can see that important elements of the regulations – monitoring, classification and reporting requirements – are being implemented,” she said.
“Nevertheless, the lack of overall improvement in water quality observed in recent years, combined with a number of bathing water sites failing to achieve sufficient or better standards, is a cause for concern and has been widely reported.
“For the public to be better protected and enjoy the significant health and wellbeing advantages of being active, closer to nature and more connected to their communities, the regulatory regime needs to be more expansive and more effective”.
