Cities across the world, including Paris, New York and Melbourne, are spending millions cleaning up their rivers to make them accessible for swimming<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has joined them by signing a commitment to make the UK capital\u2019s rivers \u201cswimmable\u201d within the next decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have 41 rivers and waterways across the city, all of which are badly polluted and it\u2019s an absolute scandal that we\u2019ve just normalised it and accepted it to be that way,\u201d London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban, told The i Paper.<\/p>\n \u201cSewage, shipping and safety\u201d are the three main challenges the mayor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Untreated sewage was released by Thames Water<\/a> into London\u2019s rivers for over 12,000 hours in the year up until March 2024, a City Hall analysis has found.<\/p>\n The Thames is also by far the busiest waterway in the country, handling over half of the UK\u2019s inland freight per year.<\/p>\n How to make London swimmable<\/p>\n There are currently eight spots across London, including Hampstead Ponds and Canary Wharf, where safe open water swimming is possible, according to a map published by City Hall.<\/p>\n Over the next three years, the mayor\u2019s office will select a number of new sites to direct investment towards to ensure there is access to wild swimming in all corners of the city, Coban said.<\/p>\n City Hall has suggested four sites where this could be, including two spots on the River Thames at Teddington and Albany Reach. The two other sites are Hackney Marshes on the River Lea and the River Roding, both in east London.<\/p>\n Community groups are also being asked to come forward with ideas for sites in the city that could be turned into safe outdoor swim spots.<\/p>\n A report by the London Assembly published earlier this year suggested the mayor should set a target of creating 10 new wild swimming spots across London over the next decade.<\/p>\n The Thames has recently undergone a clean-up thanks to the Thames Tideway super sewer<\/a> that has captured over 12 million tonnes of sewage, or 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools \u2013 that would otherwise have been dumped into the river since it opened last year.<\/p>\n But the Thames is still heavily polluted<\/a> with sewage and chemicals, which flow into the river from over 50 tributaries.<\/p>\n Romer-Lee said the entire Thames does not need to be cleaned up to create safe swimming spots, pointing to the example of Paris, where seasonal bathing areas have been created on the Seine that are tested regularly for pollution.<\/p>\n The Seine is also home to a floating swimming pool, Piscine Jos\u00e9phine Baker, that sits on a boat in the city\u2019s 13th arrondissement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, New York is in the process of building a pool that filters river water in Manhattan\u2019s East River.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to see us swimming in the Thames or on the Thames. I don\u2019t think we are ever going to swim in the central London section of the Thames, it is just too dangerous\u2026.but if you put a floating boat in the Thames, which you swim in, such as Paris has, then you overcome that problem,\u201d Romer-Lee said.<\/p>\n \nHow cities across the world are becoming \u2018swimmable\u2019 <\/p>\n Paris<\/p>\n Ahead of the 2024 Olympics, authorities in Paris spent \u20ac1.4bn (\u00a31.2bn) cleaning up the River Seine so it could be used for events including the triathlon.\u00a0<\/p>\n The investment included major upgrades to the city\u2019s sewerage network, including treatment plant upgrades and a giant rainwater storage basin to reduce the amount of sewage spilling into the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n The investment has not reduced sewage pollution; the men\u2019s triathlon had to be postponed due to heavy rain, which resulted in high levels of E.coli in the river during the Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the situation has significantly improved, and this summer, three official bathing sites were opened along the Seine. These sites are only open in the summer months and are tested daily, with swimming only allowed on days when the water meets EU regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rotterdam<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_278370135.jpg\")
\u2018Sewage, shipping and safety\u2019 are the challenges Sadiq Khan will have to overcome to make parts of the Thames swimmable (Photo: lorenzo grifantini\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_278783628.jpg\")
The existing and suggested open swim spots in London (Photo: Greater London Authority)<\/p>\n![\"Paris,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_278370138.jpg\")
People swimming at the open Bassin des Recollets in the Canal Saint-Martin on the Right Bank in Paris, France (Photo: MDoculus\/Getty)<\/p>\n
![\"Locals](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_278372933.jpg\")
Locals enjoy an early evening at Zwembad Rijnhaven in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on September 7 (Photo: Michael Nguyen\/NurPhoto\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"concept](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SEI_278372596.jpg\")
Concept of +Pool river swim facility planned for New York (Photo:: +Pool)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n