Following the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games (and the forthcoming Paralympic Games), there has been much focus on urban swimming, rivers, and pollution. While the work to clean up the Seine so that it is swimmable has been in process much longer than the Paris organising committee might like us to believe, the high profile of the project as a key part of the Games has meant that urban swimming has been much in the media.
But discussions about urban swimming and swimmable cities have been growing for some time with increasing numbers of cities working to ensure their rivers and harbours are more accessible for public swimming.
So, a few weeks ago I was really excited to see the launch of Swimmable Cities. This alliance ‘is supporting a global, grassroots movement for swimmable urban waterways’, and their charter ‘champions the right to swim, celebrates urban swimming culture, and honours the sacredness of water’ and it launched into the world with signatories from 31+ cities and 16+ countries, with room for many more.
This launch of the Swimmable Cities alliance is not a reaction to an urban design “moment” driven by Paris 2024, but is the result of work and network building over many of years and is driven by some really dedicated and passionate people. It is wonderful to see the information and charter now available to the public.
You can access all of their documents via the Swimmable Cities website, including the charter that the various organisations have become signatories to. Like any alliance or charter of this kind, other than having their membership revoked, being aligned with the charter comes with no real responsibilities or consequences for organisations. However, becoming a signatory to the Swimmable Cities charter requires an application process that includes a commitment to adhere to the principles of the charter in their operations and decision making.
The charter outlines 10 principles that aim to influence how decision-makers, advocates, and community leaders engage in work with and related to local waterways. The principles in the charter were developed with some core aims [listed in brackets] which I have summarised as:
- collaboration and non-violence [Making peace with nature];
- recognising both human rights and the rights of nature [Promoting the rights to life];
- decentering power to ensure local actors can make decisions relevant to their places and communities [Empowering people in practice];
- aligning with regenerative and sustainable approaches and global strategies such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, The Paris Agreement and The Biodiversity Plan [Swimming to sustainable development];
- encouraging public and private cooperation that ensures shared benefits and prevents privatisation of environments [Investing in a better future for all];
- recognising that ‘the urban swimming movement is currently dominated by Global North and Euro-centric worldviews’ and actively working to diversify the conversations, ideas and approaches available to thinking about, designing for and participating in urban swimming [Connecting south, north, east & west].
These overarching aims were carefully considered and involved extensive consultation with multiple groups and individuals. They have been also designed to align with forms of language and knowledge linked to international frameworks, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This approach reflects the multi-national momentum of the swimmable cities movement and the need for a flexible, goal-focused framework for members to sign up to.
The principles of the charter are organised into four themes: Foundational values; Enabling conditions; Sharing benefits; and Next gen. I have also included my own keyword interpretations of what these themes are engaged with (in brackets) that I associate with these themes.
Foundational values (culture, community & everyday life):
1. THE RIGHT TO SWIM: Safe, healthy and swimmable waterways should be accessible to all people.
2. ONE HEALTH, MANY SWIMMERS: Swimmable urban waterways are vital to the liveability of cities and communities, as shared civic places that promote the health of people (physically, mentally, spiritually) and the health of Mother Earth.
3. URBAN SWIMMING CULTURE: Urban swimming culture is a unique expression of life in cities and communities, reflecting the distinct interplay of sports, recreation and tourism in each given place, as well as natural and cultural heritage.
4. WATER IS SACRED: Urban swimming should celebrate natural waterways as living, integrated entities that nurture communities, promoting universal accessibility and peaceful coexistence inclusive of religious, cultural and gender diversity.
Enabling conditions (design and governance):
5. REWRITING THE RULES: Urban waterway swimming should become part of a new status quo in public access standards, challenging accepted conventions such as industrial uses and stormwater pollution, with governing authorities swiftly amending legal and regulatory frameworks to enable citizens access to its benefits.
6. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION IN SWIMMING PLACES: Urban swimming places and experiences should be planned, designed, made and operated through inclusive, integrated water management approaches; with managers ensuring universal access via community-led programs for learning how to swim in natural waterways and ecological literacy.
7. RECONNECTION & RESILIENCE: Urban swimming places and experiences should be invested in as an innovative way to enable resilient communities to adapt and thrive in a changing global climate, environment and economy.
Sharing benefits (accessibility & inclusivity):
8. NEW ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES Urban swimming development models should balance social, cultural, ecological and economic values, creating new jobs, careers and livelihoods in regenerative professions and industries.
9. SHARING WELLBEING BENEFITS, CULTURE & KNOWLEDGE: Urban swimming should create wellbeing benefits to local citizens, ecosystems and economies; enhanced by the respectful sharing of Indigenous, traditional and Western water culture knowledge.
Next gen (regenerative, restorative, just futures):
10. STEWARDSHIP FOR TODAY, TOMORROW & FUTURE GENERATIONS: Urban swimmers are stewards responsible for protecting the health of their local waterways, working alongside Mother Earth’s closest carers, such as Indigenous peoples, rangers and waterkeepers as well as urbanists, architects, social changemakers, educators and policy-makers.
Like the aims, these principles are hard to fault, and are clearly the result of careful, research-led thinking and conversations with diverse people over time. They are principles based in ethics, values and hope, rather than offering prescriptive, exclusive, or definitive instructions for how to create urban swimming spaces and communities. These principles are far from that!
The Swimmable Cities charter and principles are something that I imagine many organisations and individuals will want to be associated with, and which I admire.
Congratulations on the team behind the Swimmable Cities alliance, charter and principle, and to the initial group of signatories. I know how much hard work has gone into this moment, and that this launch is only the start of exciting things to come.
I encourage you to check out their beautiful website and to sign up to their mailing list, follow their Instagram or LinkedIn accounts and, if you’re an organisation in urban planning, design, water safety, or water care, then consider becoming a signatory.
