Athletes swim Thames to focus on ‘sewage disaster’

Eight swimmers are collaborating in a 200km (124-mile) swim relay alongside the size of the River Thames to boost consciousness of the UK’s “sewage crisis”.

The individuals, coordinated by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), set off on Monday from Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and can end at Teddington Lock on Thursday.

They will then journey by boat and kayak to Westminster, the place they’ll name for “urgent action to protect the UK’s rivers, lakes, and seas”.

Swimmer Jessika Robson stated: “Taking part in this swim is my way of giving back to the water that’s given me so much.”

Ms Robson is the world document holding ultramarathon and ice swimmer, and the youngest girl to swim the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland.

She is representing Northern Ireland within the swim, which options athletes from all 4 nations of the UK navigating by means of Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Surrey.

SAS is monitoring air pollution within the Thames in the course of the problem, monitoring E. coli, ammonia, and oxygen ranges.

Dani Jordan, director of campaigns and communities, stated it was “shining a spotlight” on the “bravery, determination, and unity of those across the UK who refuse to accept our wild waters being treated like open sewers”.

She added: “By swimming from source to the city of the iconic, yet chronically polluted, Thames, this challenge demonstrates the urgent need for action.”

The different athletes are Welsh open water swimmer Emily Forwood, Scottish broadcaster and adventurer Calum Maclean, open water marathon swimmer Colleen Blair, Paris Olympian Tobais Robinson, Great British marathon swimmer Amber Keegan, and Daniel Smyth, the youngest male to swim the North Channel.

Thames Water, which was not too long ago granted permission to pay its record fine of £122.7m in instalments, described “clean, safe rivers” as a “shared priority”, and stated it supported efforts that raised consciousness and drove enhancements in water high quality.

It stated it was addressing its “ageing infrastructure” with £9.5bn of funding in direction of its wastewater belongings.

“The newly completed Tideway Tunnel will scale back the amount of discharges getting into the tidal Thames in a typical yr by 95%,” it added.

But it stated farming, business, wildlife, and run off from roads additionally affected river well being, and that everybody had a “critical role to play” in assembly the calls for “that come with population growth and climate change”.

A Defra spokesperson stated: “This government has put in place the building blocks to clean up England’s rivers, lakes and seas for good.

“We have reset the business, with new legal guidelines to dam bonuses for 10 polluting water executives.

“Now we are going further, investing over £104bn of private investment to upgrade crumbling pipes and halve sewage pollution by 2030.”