The Swimmable City Test
project-syndicate.org
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has set a clear target: every Londoner should be able to reach a safe, public swimming place within fifteen minutes of their home by 2035. This goal is not a single budget item; it is a public mission that must bring together health, environment, education, and transport ministries, local councils, and water regulators.
If you visited a London pool this summer, you would notice it was quieter than expected. Since the COVID‑19 pandemic, most public swimming facilities have moved to online booking systems that favor people who can plan ahead, pay in advance, and have an adult available to supervise. Many London residents cannot meet those conditions, so they miss out on swimming.
In July 2023, Mayor Khan launched the Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan. The plan aims to widen access to ten strategic locations by 2036 and has already attracted commitments of about £1.8 billion (≈ €2.4 billion) by 2030. The plan contains 48 projects, but its success depends on whether those projects are managed as one portfolio with a single goal or as 48 separate projects with 48 owners. The difference is the difference between a program and a mission.
Cities worldwide are recognizing pools and other blue spaces as essential climate infrastructure. After modernising its sewers and treatment plants in the 1990s, Copenhagen opened its first harbour bath at Islands Brygge in 2002. The success of that project has been replicated in Oslo and New York City. Paris spent €1.4 billion (≈ $1.6 billion) cleaning the Seine, which now offers public‑access, lifeguarded bathing sites—the first legal swimming in the river since 1923. These cities share a high level of ambition and now have an opportunity to develop a common delivery method.