London mayor Sadiq Khan has said he wants to make the River Thames clean enough to swim in by 2034. But if it was clean and safe would Londoners want to?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been warned that his promise to create swimmable rivers in
00:06the capital by 2034 must not encourage people to swim in the dangerous tides of the Thames.
00:13The mayor was re-elected last year on a manifesto which pledged he would launch an ambitious
00:18plan to make rivers in London swimmable within 10 years. A senior official at the Port of
00:24London Authority, which manages a tidal section of the Thames, said the way in which the plan
00:30had been summarised in media headlines had caused concern. A spokeswoman for Sir Sadiq
00:36said the tidal part of the Thames would never be safe to swim in, but the mayor was committed
00:41to cleaning up areas where swimming would be safe. But if the River Thames was clean,
00:47would Londoners want to swim in it?
01:17I think it could be dangerous because of currents. In principle, it's good, but I think it might be a bit dangerous.
01:35Well, I think it's disgusting. I think it's disgusting how a lot of our publicly owned companies have sold off.
01:44And despite the fact that pollution is absolutely rife, there are so many thousands of incidents of pollution,
01:54shareholders are still collecting dividends. It's wrong.