None of our rivers meet the legal standard for health, and communities are starting to take matters into their own hands
I wouldn’t go swimming in England’s rivers, in the same way that I wouldn’t flush my head down a public toilet. It’s not just me who feels this way. Even Sir James Bevan, the chief executive of the Environment Agency – the regulator responsible for protecting and improving water in England – has said he would be “cautious” about it, first seeking out assurances by checking the websites of the EA and the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage before going for a paddle.
Bevan’s agency does provide some assurances – as long as you only wish to swim in one of the country’s 417 or so designated bathing water sites, most of which are at the coast. In fact, there are only around a dozen inland bathing lakes in the whole country; and, for now, just one river – in Ilkley, West Yorkshire – which was rated “poor” in the agency’s last assessment of bathing water, so you might want to avoid it anyway. Better to hop across the Channel instead, where France can offer around 1,300 glorious lakes and rivers designated for safe swimming among its 3,300 bathing sites.
Rachel Salvidge is an environmental journalist and deputy editor of the Ends Report
