{"id":397649,"date":"2025-09-04T16:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397649\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:07:17","slug":"sewage-in-thames-disrupts-olympic-swimmers-pollution-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397649\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewage in Thames disrupts Olympic swimmers\u2019 pollution challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of world-class swimmers who swam the Thames this week to raise awareness of river pollution had their challenge repeatedly interrupted by raw sewage.<\/p>\n

The eight swimmers, who included Olympians and athletes from all four of the UK nations, arrived at Teddington Lock in southwest London on Thursday after covering 200 kilometres in a relay that started on Monday at Lechlade, Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly difficult. There\u2019s been moments doing this where I have not been sure that I\u2019m going to finish the challenge,\u201d said Amber Keegan<\/a>, 28, who in 2024 became one of the fastest women to swim the Channel. <\/p>\n

\"Amber<\/p>\n

Amber Kidd, 28, was among the eight swimmers who took part in the challenge<\/p>\n

VAGNER VIDAL FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

During the challenge she got five hours of sleep each day at best, despite tiredness being linked to swimmers having a reduced tolerance to cold water. Physical pain was not the only obstacle. After an unusually dry summer<\/a>, the group swam during repeated downpours, which can overwhelm waste capacity and trigger raw sewage spills.<\/p>\n

Unlike most recreational wild swims, this one, organised by the charity Surfers Against Sewage, included a boat taking live readings of harmful bacteria such as E. coli<\/a> and people checking online real-time data on sewage discharges. <\/p>\n

At Henley, which is known as a hotspot for sewage pollution<\/a>, the data was so concerning that the swimmers briefly hopped into the boat. Readings immediately after Henley showed E. coli levels at 150 times higher than the stretch just beforehand.<\/p>\n

Between Marsh Lock and Hambleden Lock, a family including a young boy had waited on a pier hoping to get in the water and join the swimming expedition. But the water quality was so poor that the athletes were in the boat by then, leaving the family disappointed and unable to join.<\/p>\n

Toby Robinson, 29, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, estimated the team had been forced to skip about 15 kilometres of their route as a result of pollution concerns<\/a>. \u201cAs we got closer to London there\u2019s just much more debris in the water and I\u2019ve been bumping into a lot more stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cThe water changes colour. Towards the source it was greenish, but further down it\u2019s changed to a more browny colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Amber Keegan, Daniel Smyth and Toby Robinson all completed the challenge on Thursday<\/p>\n

VAGNER VIDAL FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Apart from sore shoulders and a rash that Robinson and Keegan attributed to algae near the start, the group arrived in London without falling ill.<\/p>\n

Robinson said he hoped the government could emulate the way French authorities cleaned up the River Seine<\/a> for the Olympics, where three dedicated bathing waters have now been established. \u201cSpeak to the people [who] made that happen and learn the lessons we can apply to our rivers,\u201d he said of his message to ministers.<\/p>\n

Daniel Smyth, 18, a student and ultramarathon swimmer from Newry in Northern Ireland, said it was disappointing how much sewage there was in the Thames this week. \u201cBut it highlights what we\u2019re doing [the swim] for,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not safe to swim \u2014 and it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts said that while wild swimming was never guaranteed to be free of the risk of pathogens, there had been some progress in the Thames.<\/p>\n

\"Eight<\/p>\n

The team included Olympians and athletes from all four of the UK nations<\/p>\n

VAGNER VIDAL PHOTOGRAPHY<\/p>\n

Professor Mike Bowes at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, an independent research institute, said: \u201cMy message would be that the water companies were largely responsible for improving the [Thames\u2019s] water quality in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But it has stagnated since 2010 and I would say sewage is still the major source of pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government is preparing to publish a white paper this autumn on a significant shakeup of the water sector, which will include the abolition of the regulator Ofwat<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to actually end sewage pollution for good,\u201d Keegan said.<\/p>\n

A government spokesman said: \u201cWe have introduced a new era of accountability. Through tough new laws, we have blocked unfair bonuses for water executives and polluting water bosses now face up to two years in prison. We are rebuilding sewage pipes to slash pollution levels in half with over \u00a3104 billion of private investment being spent to upgrade our crumbling sewage pipes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of world-class swimmers who swam the Thames this week to raise awareness of river pollution had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-397649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115146892539147689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}