Would You Swim Here? Why Water Quality Matters More Than Ever
In the first of a three-part blog series, we’ll be taking a look at water quality and why it matters to the public, especially in light of the growing popularity of urban and wild swimming movements, but also with growing awareness from surfer-led campaign groups.
The second blog will look at water quality in terms of regulations, the need for reuse, and reputational risk, while the third will examine how water quality concerns are driving technology advances in monitoring and identifying contaminants, and how new advances in microbiological monitoring offer faster, more confident detection of the bacteria that can negatively impact how, where and when we enjoy water.
What if it were safe to swim in your local river whenever you wanted, at any time of the year; wherever that river was located: in the middle of the countryside or in the middle of a major city?
Does that sound like a pipe dream? Maybe it does, but around the world, movements are forming full of people who want to do just that.
But to do so comes with a degree of risk. Waterways, whether rivers or canals, and bodies of water, such as lakes and beaches, are not always the cleanest or safest places to swim. What makes the potential risk worse is the uncertainty that surrounds it, thanks largely to the slowness of the testing and reporting structures that swimmers and other recreational users rely on.
When we think of recreational water use, we tend to think of lazy days by the beach, a swim in the sea, some bodyboarding, or maybe some surfing, for those blessed with good balance. Increasingly, however, people are turning to rivers, lakes, canals and other inland water bodies.
Healthy rivers, healthy communities
Spend some time looking around the internet, and you will find sites dedicated to Wild Swimming and the growing Swimmable Cities movement. The more these movements grow, the better we understand the relationship between these natural ecosystems and our own health and happiness.
While river charities have for decades been highlighting the effects of pollution on the health of our river environments, and environmental agencies have been tasked with monitoring and reporting on pollution events, the increased recreational use of water bodies, and the media attention it attracts, highlight the need for stronger controls and more accurate and timely monitoring.
Across the world, groups like Surfers Against Sewage in the UK, Swim Drink Fish in Canada, and Surfrider Foundation in the Netherlands are campaigning for cleaner waters, whether coastal or inland, that we can all enjoy.
The message is clear: people want to use their local water body without getting sick. This seems like a reasonable request. Community groups are now joining the fight for cleaner water.
Swimming in the wild
Take Swimmable Cities, which launched its charter in 2024, following the Paris Olympics. The movement held its first summit in Rotterdam in 2025, with over 200 people from more than 20 countries run, dive, jump and plunge into the city’s Rijnhaven, a former industrial port on the Nieuwe Maas River.
Swimmable Cities is an alliance formed of experts in urban swimming environment design, public mediation, community building, policy, safety, public health, waterway restoration and water quality. It includes local activists and community swimming groups, municipalities and government agencies, civil society organisations, businesses, universities and cultural institutions.
At its core, this global community places the human right to swim in healthy, safe waters at the top of its charter.
Wild swimming enthusiasts speak of the endorphin rush and health benefits of dipping into a river or taking to the sea in the depths of winter (these hardy swimmers leave their wetsuits at home). They enjoy being surrounded by nature, and good sites for a swim are shared on social media among the converts and the intrigued.
Bathing water and pollution
The benefits of cleaning up our rivers to a standard where they become safe for people to swim extend beyond simply recreation. Healthy rivers and coastal waters promote stronger, more resilient marine and riverine ecosystems. Cleaner rivers become places where nature thrives beyond the water and into the wider environment. They are places people choose to spend their leisure time and help promote greener, cleaner, more resilient towns and cities.
But things can go wrong. Bathing waters get exposed to pollution in many ways: storm overflows, sewage spills, urban and agricultural runoff, industrial pollution, and more. Heavy rainfall and drought conditions can make things worse. Bathing waters can harbour chemicals, bacteria – E.Coli and enterococci are the two most commonly monitored – viruses, pharmaceuticals, and more.
Testing and monitoring regimes may not be stringent or timely enough to a) prevent illness in the first place, and b) to know when to safely re-open bathing waters to prevent reputational damage.
This is where rapid testing, detection and identification of bacteria prove vital. Waiting days for a sample to test positive for E.Coli places people’s health at risk. Real-time testing prioritises health and alerts authorities that there is a problem that needs addressing. BactoSense offers a range of rapid detection products for identifying bacteria in water bodies, with a new product soon to launch specifically aimed bathing water quality.
Cities fight back against river pollution
Berlin-based Flussbad Pressure Group began lobbying in 2012 for the right to swim in the Spree, which had been banned since 1925 when the river was declared a danger to human health. By 2025, the group had organised and successfully launched its first swim, citing improvements in the city’s sanitation and increased testing. Organisers said that conditions deteriorated only after heavy rainfall.
In Switzerland, Basel, Berne, Zurich and Geneva have all opened stretches of river to swimming and made recreational use accessible and culturally acceptable. This followed the construction of sewage treatment facilities and the diversion of domestic wastewater away from the cities.
In the US, Chicago River Swim went back to the future when it launched its first event in 2025 with over 400 participants from 13 countries. The organisers estimate that media coverage of the event reached 3 billion people, and they were so confident in the river’s water quality that the results of monitoring were made available on the website. In fact, river swimming was common in the city in the early part of the 20th century when the river’s flow was reversed to draw freshwater from Lake Michigan to help remove pollution.
Paris has become the flagship for how to clean a river. City authorities, along with the national government, spent more than nine years and €1.4 billion in the run-up to the 2024 Olympics to clean up the Seine ahead of the opening ceremony and open water events. Wastewater management, treatment plants, filtering stations and storm basins formed key components of the bid to remove bacteria, which authorities said originated from faecal waste. More than human enjoyment, the cleaning process has benefited the river’s ecosystem: ahead of the games, city authorities counted more than 30 fish species in the river, a huge improvement over the three recorded in the 1970s.
These efforts to clean up rivers are having many benefits. However, community groups and recreational users are not the sole drivers of change; legislation, particularly in Europe, is getting tough on pollution and polluters. Increasingly, corporate reputation is also playing a role in improving the quality of bathing waters around the world – subjects we will explore in the second blog in this series.
Frequently Asked Questions
What affects bathing water quality?
Bathing water quality can be affected by sewage spills, storm overflows, agricultural and urban runoff, industrial pollution and changing weather conditions. Heavy rainfall can wash contaminants into rivers, lakes and coastal waters, while pollution events can introduce bacteria, viruses and other substances that may pose a risk to swimmers.
Which bacteria are monitored in bathing water?
E. coli and enterococci are commonly monitored as indicators of faecal contamination in recreational waters. Their presence can indicate that a water body has been affected by human or animal waste and that other potentially harmful microorganisms may also be present.
Why is rapid monitoring of bathing water quality important?
Water quality can change quickly, particularly after heavy rainfall, sewage discharges or other pollution events. Faster monitoring gives water managers more timely information about changing microbiological conditions, helping them assess risks, respond to contamination events and make better-informed decisions about recreational water use.
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