If you know someone who’s so much as taken a seaside dip on their holidays, you’ll probably have heard all about the benefits of wild swimming.
It involves swimming in “wild”, open water – like ponds, lakes, and even the sea – and it can improve everything from your mood to your fitness levels.
However, when it comes to taking the plunge, UK wild swimmers might end up with more than they bargained for.
The British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) says that “open water swimming carries an increased risk of communicable disease transmission due to the untreated nature of the water in use.”
Last year, footage of “copious volumes of raw untreated sewage being actively discharged onto the beaches” led the BJGP to wonder just how much Britain’s waste might interfere with the wild swimmers of the UK.
We thought we’d look into the same thing – and the answers are going to keep me out of any ponds for months, ta very much.
How bad is the problem?
Part of the problem is that we don’t know.
As The Times says, “In total, there are currently 612 unmonitored storm overflows across England’s main wastewater firms.”
That means that nobody’s watching an awful lot of the spots where sewage might meet open water, even outside of heavy rainfall.
The Guardian states that “the Environment Agency admitted there were more than 300,000 spillages into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, lasting for more than 1.75m hours.”
The UK’s (literally Victorian) sewers aren’t able to cope with heavy rainfall, and a lack of monitoring, means that “raw sewage was dumped into rivers and coastal areas across England more than 300,000 times last year despite a fall in the overall number.”
Puts the “three-fold increase in wild swimming participation across the UK since 2019 (to 2022)” into pretty bleak perspective, right?
OK, so... how do I know if this is happening near me?
Unfortunately, it can be pretty hard to tell.
iNews say that “Four new wild swimming sites given the stamp of approval by the Government on Monday had raw sewage dumped into waterways feeding them on 457 separate occasions last year.”
The spots – based in Suffolk, Plymouth and Rutland – are only four of the 400+ government-approved ‘bathing waters’ in the UK.
This map from The Rivers Trust shows where sewage can leak into British waterways – and yes, there are many, many crossovers between the spots they highlight and the government-approved list we just talked about.
Lovely stuff.
How can it affect my health?
Well, it is literal untreated poo. So, a lot.
The BJGP says that “Norovirus, E. coli, giardia and cryptosporidium are responsible for many episodes of wild swimming-associated gastrointestinal infections, while other pathogens may induce respiratory, dermatological and ENT symptoms, and leptospirosis (Weil’s disease) may trigger severe deterioration in liver and kidney function.“
They add that “the risks of accident and injury (for wild swimming) are substantially greater than in lifeguard-patrolled pools.”
That’s me safely kept away from my local lake, then.