Copyright: © 2013 Campos CJA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Over the last couple of decades, substantial investment has been made in many European countries to improve point-source discharges from sewerage plant and infrastructure [1]. European Union environmental legislation has been the main driver for these improvements, namely the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), Bathing Waters Directive (BWD) and Shellfish Waters Directive (SWD). Perhaps, the most thoroughly documented example of the benefits of improved sewage treatment is the increase in the number of coastal and inland bathing waters that consistently achieve compliance with the guideline bacteriological standards of the BWD [2]. Despite this progress, it is now evident that microbial pollutants from diffuse water pollution from agricultural (DWPA), and urban areas contribute a larger proportion of bacterial contaminants delivered to coastal waters than previously thought, and are causing problems for bathing and shellfish waters compliance. Although the impact of DWPA has long been recognised, improvements have been slow and difficult because of the complexity associated with the multiple pollutant transport pathways that are characteristic of this type of pollution. An example of this is the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Initiative, the most comprehensive programme of work carried out to date to identify and reduce DWPA in England. Under the programme, advice has been given to thousands of farmers in 50 catchments covering 40% of the nation’s agricultural land. Despite some good examples of partnership working at local level, a programme evaluation report by the National Audit Office concluded that work to date has not proved value for money because important information gaps still exist on the causes of diffuse pollution, and there has been little progress in persuading those causing most diffuse pollution to acknowledge their responsibility [3]. A significant impediment to the effectiveness of the UWWTD in contributing to reduce sewage pollution relates to the fact that this legislation applies to urban agglomerations of 2,000 people or more, and thus limited scope exists to minimise public health risks in rural areas. Looking ahead, major investment will be needed to maintain sewerage infrastructures compatible with future demographic and land use changes [4].