| Directive purpose
| Impact of Directive |
| Habitats Directive | Water abstraction licences and discharge consents are being reviewed and amended, unless they can be shown to have no adverse effect on the habitats the Directive is designed to protect.
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| Freshwater Fish Directive | Further designations under this Directive are likely to lead to a continuing steady improvement in water quality for fish. The Directive will be repealed in 2013 under the Water Framework Directive.
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| Shellfish Waters Directive | We have developed a good understanding of water quality of designated waters by intensive sampling and of pollution sources by investigating the source of all failures to achieve the required water quality standard.
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| Groundwater Directive | The Directive has resulted in a tighter regulatory control over those who dispose of listed substances to land, or direct to groundwater, and over those who carry out other activities which could result in groundwater pollution.
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| Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive | Secondary treatment (generally accepted as the normal standard of protection for the environment) was provided at 98% of sewage treatment works serving over 15,000 people at the end of 2002.
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| In England and Wales, 112 Sensitive Areas (Eutrophic) have been identified under the Directive, and more stringent treatment (reduction of phosphorus and/or nitrogen) has or will be provide at qualifying sewage treatment works.
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| By the end of 2005, we expect secondary treatment to be the minimum standard of treatment for almost all treatment works serving over 2,000 people.
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| Bathing Water Directive | The quality of most of the 406 English bathing waters has been transformed to comply with the Directive's mandatory standards. The Directive is subject to revision by the EC at the moment.
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| Surface Water Abstraction Directive | Between 1999 and 2001, the number of occasions of mandatory SWAD standards being exceeded was halved, the majority stemming from the determinands for colouration, dissolved iron and phenols.
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| Drinking Water Directive | The Directive has led to significant improvements in drinking water quality by setting compulsory chemical and microbiological standards.
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