Rome’s mayor, inspired by Paris’s decision to reopen the Seine for public bathing this summer after a century-long ban, has pledged that within five years swimmers will once again be able to take to the River Tiber.
Speaking at the Osaka Expo in Japan on Thursday, Roberto Gualtieri said a working group had concluded that a clean-up was “entirely achievable” within that timeframe, The Guardian reports.
Sceptics are unconvinced. Italian media noted the country’s record of protracted public works and pointed to the Tiber’s persistent pollution. Until the 1960s, Romans swam freely in the river; today bathing is banned, punishable by hefty fines. Only a New Year’s Day ritual remains, when divers leap from bridges into the icy current.
Gualtieri insists that Rome’s project will be cheaper than the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) operation in Paris, because pollution levels in the Tiber are lower than those once measured in the Seine. But recent scientific studies suggest the river is far from clean.
Research published last year by the Tara Microplastics mission found an average of three plastic particles per cubic metre of water. In September, Italy’s Institute for Environmental Protection and Research reported that the Tiber carries more floating waste into the sea than any other Italian river, along with high concentrations of ammonia and faecal bacteria.
“The health risks linked to pollution in the Tiber and in inland waters are extremely high,” warned Alessandro Miani of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, citing gastrointestinal and skin infections as potential consequences of contact with contaminated water.
Paris’s experience offers both inspiration and caution. Reuters notes that despite decades of investment, high levels of E. coli forced the postponement of some Olympic swimming events in 2024. Athletes competing in the Seine sometimes took precautionary medication.
For now, the Italian press has treated Gualtieri’s optimism with scepticism. “The road to making the Tiber swimmable in five years is anything but downhill,” wrote RomaToday. La Repubblica was blunter still, arguing that even a modest €8m plan to make a small Roman lake swimmable will take at least five years, and that the Tiber will “take far longer, if it ever begins”.
[Image: Tomasz Zielonka on Unsplash]