I plan to swim a half-marathon (21km) in the open air over the course of six weeks, in support of the Rivers Trust and the work they do to campaign for the health of our rivers. Rivers should be lifelines of vigorous animacy among the country’s ecosystems, but lax laws and even laxer enforcement means they are repeatedly and systematically poisoned by water companies and industrial farms. Sewage works are legally allowed to discharge raw sewage into rivers after periods of heavy rainfall, but there is no legal definition of ‘heavy rain’ and sewage works have been recorded discharging sewage during very light rain or even no rain at all. Yuck.

As George Monbiot’s recent ‘rivercide’ investigations have shown, intense industrial livestock farming is an even bigger culprit when it comes to poisoning rivers, even when farmers follow the letter of the law. No river in England or Wales is considered to be in ‘good overall health’ and there has been an 83% decline in freshwater species globally since 1970. We need to turn this around, now. The Rivers Trust works to protect rivers and to promote their vision: wild, healthy, natural rivers, valued by all.

My swim will take place in the open air, journeying via the sea, lakes, rivers, and lidos. This will potentially be difficult as if the weather’s bad there will undoubtedly be pollution alerts for the river Avon, making swimming there unwise… I’m kicking things off at the end of August and ending on Sunday 3^rd October with a swim off the Northumberland coast (when I imagine it will be a bit chillier!). To hit my target, I need to swim 3.5km a week, or a kilometre every other day (for context, a kilometre would be 40 lengths in a standard 25m pool). I am relatively new to swimming and only began wild swimming this year, so this will definitely be a physical and organisational challenge.

Although they aren’t on this platform so I can’t fundraise for them directly, I would also like to donate to the Black Swimming Association (BSA). The world of swimming – and especially open water swimming – is an overwhelmingly white place. 95% of black British adults and 80% of black British children cannot swim. The BSA aims to challenge the negative stigmas, narratives, and relationships that ethnic minorities have with the water.

In the UK, there has recently been a horrible spate of people drowning in open water during the hot weather, as well as unprecedented flash flooding. Both these issues make wider swimming literacy even more pressing. People from ethnic minorities, disabled people, and women are more likely to be negatively impacted by climate-breakdown-driven crisis events, primarily because they are less likely to be able to swim.

Moreover, people from ethnic minorities often feel excluded from the countryside, adding another barrier to diversity among wild swimmers, and excluding many people from the physical and mental health benefits of wild swimming. Swimming in rivers, lakes, and seas is a (literally) immersive way of connecting with and learning about nonhuman nature, and ecosystems are best protected by those who know them and care about them. We need to open that space up to communities who have mostly been excluded from wild swimming, by encouraging diversity via organisations such as the BSA and by supporting safe access to clean, wildlife-rich rivers via the organisations such as the Rivers Trust.

If you can’t donate, then please consider signing River Action UK’s petition to double environmental protection budgets to fight river pollution: https://riveractionuk.com/Campaigns/give-us-back-our-rivers/


You could also write to your MP about the Inland Sewage Bill and the campaign from the Rivers Trust and Surfers Against Sewage to #EndSewagePollution: https://www.sas.org.uk/EndSewagePollution-SewageBill

If you’ve got to the end of this little essay, thanks so much for reading it! And thank you in advance for your support, whatever form it takes 😊