Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has joined them by signing a commitment to make the UK capital’s rivers “swimmable” within the next decade.
“We have 41 rivers and waterways across the city, all of which are badly polluted and it’s an absolute scandal that we’ve just normalised it and accepted it to be that way,” London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban, told *The i Paper*.
“Sewage, shipping and safety” are the three main challenges the mayor’s office will have to overcome, according to Chris Romer-Lee, the London-based founder of Swimmable Cities, an alliance of urban areas working towards cleaning up their waterways.
The Thames is also by far the busiest waterway in the country, handling over half of the UK’s inland freight per year.
Neat idea. We loved jumping in the Rhine in Basel and swimming with the current, along with loads of commuters.
There’s plenty of cities in the UK with multiple swimming spots (I live in one).
London isn’t the centre of the universe.
How about cleaning up some of the rest of the country’s rivers first?
Is there a demand for this? Even if they clean what’s *pumped* into the Thames, what gets *washed* into the Thames by the very frequent rain won’t be good to swim in.
Brings a whole new meaning to getting dumped in the Thames.
Oh great. Now all the fringe right wing idiots who think that ‘15 minute cities’ is just a plot to keep them within 15 minutes of their homes will think that someone is now going to force them to go swimming against their will…
Sounds like another garden bridge; ie siphon off £50+ million of public funds to private companies before announcing the scheme will be cancelled several years later.
Didn’t that noncey Williams get super ill when he swam down the Thames?
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A floating pool in the Thames and a beach in Hackney are just some of the ideas being discussed under plans to make London a [“swimmable city”](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/need-more-wild-swimming-spots-golf-courses-3239958?ico=in-line_link).
Cities across the world, including Paris, New York and Melbourne, are spending millions cleaning up their rivers to make them accessible for [swimming](https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/wellbeing/wild-swimming-why-cold-water-makes-us-feel-better-930137?ico=in-line_link).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has joined them by signing a commitment to make the UK capital’s rivers “swimmable” within the next decade.
“We have 41 rivers and waterways across the city, all of which are badly polluted and it’s an absolute scandal that we’ve just normalised it and accepted it to be that way,” London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban, told *The i Paper*.
“Sewage, shipping and safety” are the three main challenges the mayor’s office will have to overcome, according to Chris Romer-Lee, the London-based founder of Swimmable Cities, an alliance of urban areas working towards cleaning up their waterways.
Untreated sewage was released by [Thames Water](https://inews.co.uk/news/thames-water-increase-pollution-incidents-3422968?ico=in-line_link) into London’s rivers for over 12,000 hours in the year up until March 2024, a City Hall analysis has found.
The Thames is also by far the busiest waterway in the country, handling over half of the UK’s inland freight per year.
Neat idea. We loved jumping in the Rhine in Basel and swimming with the current, along with loads of commuters.
There’s plenty of cities in the UK with multiple swimming spots (I live in one).
London isn’t the centre of the universe.
How about cleaning up some of the rest of the country’s rivers first?
Is there a demand for this? Even if they clean what’s *pumped* into the Thames, what gets *washed* into the Thames by the very frequent rain won’t be good to swim in.
Brings a whole new meaning to getting dumped in the Thames.
Oh great. Now all the fringe right wing idiots who think that ‘15 minute cities’ is just a plot to keep them within 15 minutes of their homes will think that someone is now going to force them to go swimming against their will…
Sounds like another garden bridge; ie siphon off £50+ million of public funds to private companies before announcing the scheme will be cancelled several years later.
Didn’t that noncey Williams get super ill when he swam down the Thames?
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