Ensuring the #RightToSwim

Oct 31

At Swim Drink Fish, we believe everyone deserves access to swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters and that safe, healthy, and swimmable waterways should be accessible to all people. That’s why we’re proud to have signed onto the Swimmable Cities Charter - a set of common principles that have been published to empower decision-makers, actors and grassroots activists in the international urban swimming movement and advocate for everyone’s #RightToSwim.

The alliance unites organizations from 49 communities across 21 countries, all working towards a shared goal: making urban swimming safe and accessible.

Swim Drink Fish has seen firsthand how access to swimmable waters impacts not only individuals but entire communities through our decades of work doing water quality monitoring. Some examples include:

Running Community Based Water Monitoring Hubs and providing a toolkit for communities across Canada including Toronto, Kingston, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria
Spreading the message of Biinaagami and our shared responsibility to the Great Lakes to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative
Partnering with Simon Fraser University to study and understand the impact of Blue Spaces in Vancouver
Restoring Access to Breakwater Park in Kingston Ontario with the Gord Edgar Downie Pier
Providing the latest and most up-to-date water quality data on the Swim Guide platform for over 10,000 swimming locations across the globe
Proudly operate Blue Flag Canada to provide stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria for beaches

Through our work doing recreational water monitoring and community-based initiatives, we are contributing to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in an effort to make swimmable cities a reality.

Learn more about the#RightToSwim movement and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.