The row at Hampstead Heath is about far various inconsiderate swimmers in a heatwave | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

A native row about swimmers and swans in Hampstead Heath has now impressed a authorities response. Environment ministers over the weekend wrote to the City of London Corporation, which oversees the heath, to say that they have been “deeply concerned” by footage of crowds of individuals within the water throughout final week’s heatwave.

One viral video confirmed younger revellers – who had defied a “no swimming” signal – in a wildlife pond, disturbing the nesting birds. It was picked up by the press, with headlines calling the swimmers “selfish”, “horrible” and “appalling”. Like many who noticed it, I used to be saddened and shocked on the disregard for animals: individuals have been clambering over nests, and attempting to achieve an island specifically safeguarded for birds. Yet I additionally puzzled what a polarised, emotive debate goes to realize when, lurking behind the justified anger, is one other query about our entry to water.

“It’s like nothing is free any more and that’s not fair for us as well. We don’t want to pay for … natural water” – this remark, given anonymously by one of many swimmers to the Times, was telling. There’s a sense, I feel, nationally, that our water now not belongs to us. It is being cynically polluted, fenced off, or monetised. Seasoned wild swimmers up and down the nation are used to seeing indicators banning them from the water, and can typically ignore them. They might have been put up by landowners for no actual purpose apart from not wanting individuals to swim there. It’s nice that we’re seeing new designated swimming areas, however demand is simply going to extend because the local weather continues to warmth up.

The well-known bathing ponds on both aspect of the wildlife pond on Hampstead Heath used to function on an honesty system. Now it’s important to pay, and in scorching climate the queues are lengthy. At the identical time, temperatures are getting hotter and warmer, and metropolis life is turning into much less bearable. There should not sufficient accessible locations to swim.

On the one hand, wild swimming has change into completely fetishised, tweely marketed as a middle-class life-style alternative and a cure-all, and spots the place you may swim are increasingly swamped. On the opposite, you’ve got “no swimming” indicators however little or no readability about why they’re there (on the wildlife pond in Hampstead Heath it’s not made clear why that one, of the three, is off limits, and there was scant details about the birds and their habitat), not to mention a correct nationwide dialog about what our rivers, seas, lakes and ponds are for.

The many campaigns in opposition to the air pollution of our rivers and seas have been glorious, however in addition to these, and instructing kids to swim, we ought to be discussing how we navigate danger and educate individuals in regards to the potential influence of open water swimming each on human and animal lives. By all means situation extra fines – but in addition put up boards explaining why individuals shouldn’t swim, simply as “no swimming” indicators in peril spots ought to clarify the precise dangers. While most swims final week have been trouble-free, some had tragic penalties. The water-related demise toll in the course of the heatwave was 16. Many of those that have died have been youngsters. We all know why younger individuals could be drawn in the direction of swimming with out considering of the results; I shudder after I consider among the doubtful choices I made as a youngster rising up in Eryri, the place deaths from drownings weren’t unusual and are nonetheless taking place.

In some methods, the Hampstead Heath saga jogs my memory of the visceral response to the felling of the sycamore hole tree: legitimate anger in regards to the setting or animal welfare escalating to an irrational level, with outraged feedback on-line wishing diarrhoea and vomiting on the swimmers.

Last week, I swam within the Hampstead Heath women’ pond alongside birds that have been gathering twigs and leaves for his or her nests. A lifeguard and I teamed as much as save an attractive pink butterfly from being trampled on the trail. I do suppose most individuals care about nature, however we too are animals who really feel a pure urge to get into the water when it’s scorching, and to not at all times consider penalties. As an island nation, swimming is encoded in many people from a really younger age. As individuals proceed to lose their lives, schooling and funding are extra pressing than ever.

• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

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