We have assessed monitoring data of more than 7600 monitoring sites accross Europe to produce the EEA indicator on freshwater quality - organic load in rivers caused by human activity. After a stable decrease of pollution in the past decade, the concentrations have stabilised in the recent years, partly corresponding to the natural background values and partly indicating that the existing measures for improving water quality (such as waste-water treatment policies) have reached their potential. Updated approaches needed!
The indicator update is available at the EEA website.