Excessive bacteria causes swimming ban at Tartu's Anne Canal beach
Even though this year's beach season has just begun, high bacteria levels have forced a swimming ban to be imposed at Tartu's Anne Canal beach.
The ban comes after excessive levels of enterococcus, an intestinal bacterium indicating contamination from faeces, were detected in the water.
The same issue has caused a red warning flag to fly over Anne Canal every beach season for a number of years.
Despite the red flag, some still decided to take a dip in the canal on Monday.
Argo Raag, service manager of G4S Estonia, said, "As long as you don't drink the water, nothing will happen to a healthy person, you shower at home and you're fine."
"It's usually the rule of thumb that after heavy rain and downpours these samples go bad. These bacteria don't like sunny weather or the ultra-violet rays, and they die out," he explained.
Raag added, that he was looking forward to seeing the results of new water samples from Anne Canal, which will be available from Wednesday.
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Editor: Michael Cole
