The Swimmable Water Wave Across the Globe
What if, on a sweltering summer’s day, instead of retreating indoors, the billions of urban dwellers around the world could dive into accessible, clean, swimmable waterways right in their own cities? A growing movement is working to make that vision a reality. It’s called Swimmable Cities.
Gord Edgar Downie Pier at Breakwater Park in Kingston,Ontario
Swim Drink Fish has been promoting swimmable waters as a strategy to protect fresh water for over 20 years. Through our advocacy work, we’ve learned that waters without swimmers are waters without protections. For far too long, “no swimming” signs have been used to shift accountability for public safety onto recreational water users and away from polluters. This has alienated communities from their local waterbodies and given the impression that urban waterfronts should not be safe for swimming.
The importance of swimmable waters goes beyond having a place to recreate but also represents a larger commitment to protecting waterways for future generations.
With this insight and a mission to keep our waters swimmable, drinkable and fishable, our team began working towards creating swimmable cities across the country. We’ve implemented numerous programs and initiatives, including:
Launching Community-Based Water Monitoring hubs across the country to sample water and share results with recreational water users to keep them safe
Creating the Swim Guide that gives the latest and most up-to-date water quality information for over 10,000 waterbodies across the globe
Operating Canada’s Blue Flag program to award certifications to great beaches
Creating the Gord Edgar Downie Pier, Canada’s first deep water swimming pier, alongside the Weston Family Foundation, the City of Kingston, and Gord Downie
It’s this history that led us to become the Canadian signatory for the Swimmable Cities movement. The organization was founded on the eve of the Paris Olympics in July 2024 with the mandate to promote cleaning up urban waterways and improve swimmability. The organization has grown rapidly, now including signatures from over 100 organizations in 27 countries. The inaugural Swimmable Cities Summit will take place this June in Rotterdam, where over 100 diverse groups will come together to share and promote projects.
When we encourage community members to connect with water, they are able to feel its importance and fragility. This is how we can build communities that are connected and motivated to protect their water. The Swimmable Cities movement is laying the foundation for people around the globe to become advocates for their local waters and take back their water for their community. Swim Drink Fish is committed to this mission, and we will do our part to make it a reality in Canada.
