Europe’s rivers are cleaner than they were a few years ago, but the pace of improvement isn’t enough to meet environmental goals set for 2030. That’s the message from a new study published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, which paints a mixed picture of the continent’s waterways and highlights which countries are leading the way, and which are falling behind.
Progress But Not Enough
Looking at data from 2015 to 2021, the team from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) found that organic pollution had dropped in 14 of the 18 countries studied. Phosphate concentrations (another key measure of water health) had fallen in 11 of the 16 countries where there was enough information to make a judgement.
These are good news, but reductions on their own aren’t enough. The real question is whether the improvement is happening fast enough to meet Europe’s targets for healthy rivers by the end of this decade. For most countries, the answer is no. Only one country, Slovenia, is on a track that fully matches the 2030 environmental goals. Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Italy and Denmark are also in a positive position, though they’ll need to keep up or step up their efforts to stay on course.
Lead author María Pachés explained the thinking behind the study: “The results show that it is not enough simply to know the current state of rivers. It is essential also to analyse how quickly their quality is improving and to check whether that pace will enable the targets set for 2030 to be met.”
Where Spain Stands
At the other end of the scale sit Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Sweden and Spain. These countries face some of the biggest challenges. Spain and Bulgaria are in the most difficult position, with a tough combination of high pollution levels and worrying trends in some indicators.
Spain’s picture is particularly mixed. On one hand, organic pollution has fallen, which is encouraging. On the other, phosphate levels have been rising, which pushes the country further away from its 2030 goals.
Co-author Remedios Martínez said: “This trend takes us further away from the 2030 environmental targets and highlights the need to strengthen measures aimed at controlling nutrient inputs into river ecosystems.”
Phosphates typically enter rivers through fertilisers running off farmland and from inadequately treated wastewater. When they build up, they fuel the growth of algae, which can starve rivers of oxygen and harm aquatic life, a process called eutrophication.
A New Way to Measure Progress
To make sense of all the complex data, the team developed a new tool called the Human Pressure on River Ecosystems (HPRE) indicator. It takes publicly available information from Eurostat and converts it into a simple scale from 0 to 100, making it easier to compare countries directly.
The indicator pulls together two main measures: biochemical oxygen demand (a sign of organic pollution) and phosphate concentration (linked to nutrient build-up and eutrophication). More than just a snapshot of today’s situation, it also calculates how quickly each country is improving and whether that pace is enough to hit sustainable levels by 2030.
The researchers link the improvements many countries have seen to things like better wastewater treatment and stricter regulations on nutrient discharges. But the overall message is clear: without stepping up, most of Europe won’t meet its goals.
Looking Ahead
The HPRE tool can help governments and policymakers spot which rivers are under the most pressure, test whether their policies are actually working, and send investment where it’s most urgently needed.
The researchers are clear, however, that no single indicator can tell the whole story. A fuller picture of a river’s health also needs biological and physical data, plus information on other pollutants. “Improving the quality of European rivers will require stricter controls on urban, industrial and agricultural discharges, the harmonisation of monitoring systems, and more complete and consistent time series,” the IIAMA-UPV researchers concluded.
Rivers are not just scenic features; they’re a key source of drinking water, home to countless species, and vital to agriculture and industry. The findings serve as both a progress report and a warning: Europe is heading in the right direction, but it has a lot of ground to make up if it wants its waterways in good health by 2030.
Giner, M.P., Martínez-Guijarro, R., López-Jiménez, P.A. et al. (2026). Evaluating river water quality in Europe: a novel methodology for tracking human impact and sustainable development goals alignment. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 33, 11977–11994. DOI: 10.1007/s11356-026-38063-6