Sir Sadiq Khan has been warned that his promise to create ‘swimmable rivers’ in London by 2034 must not encourage people to swim in the dangerous tides of the Thames. The mayor was re-elected last year on a manifesto which pledged he would “launch an ambitious plan to make rivers in London swimmable within ten years… working with partners to reverse the damage done to our rivers and waterways”.
But at a Thursday meeting of City Hall’s environment committee, a senior official at the Port of London Authority (PLA) - which manages the tidal section of the Thames - said the way in which the plan had been summarised in media headlines had caused some concern among her colleagues.
“We’ve worked really hard over the last 15 years to reduce the number of deaths that we get in the Thames,” said Grace Rawnsley, the PLA’s director of sustainability. “Every year, people die by going into the water, in the tidal Thames… In 2023, I think there were 31 deaths in the tidal Thames, from people going in when they shouldn’t have gone in, or accidents, etc. In 2022, I believe 109 rescues happened in the tidal Thames, from people going in.
“So it’s about that knowledge, it’s about doing it in a safe way, and certainly in the tidal Thames we would always be discouraging that [swimming]. “But I think when we get headlines like ‘swimmable Thames’, it does mean that people think that it’s safe to swim in. So it’s really important to have that kind of messaging about how you do that safely.”.
