Gualtieri: ‘Within five years, we’ll be able to swim in the Tiber’
“In fact,” said the Mayor of Rome, “there are some areas where, on certain days, swimming would already be possible today.”
“We have already set up a working group which will soon become inter-institutional; I have spoken personally with Minister Pichetto Fratin and President Rocca, so this working group, together with the government and the Region, will work towards securing the necessary investment” and “we are pleased to have already established that this is certainly an achievable goal: within five years we will be able to swim in the Tiber.”
This was stated by the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, on the sidelines of the event ‘The Eternal City Welcomes the Future: Attractiveness, Culture, Beauty and Innovation’, organised at the Italia Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. As for the cost, the Mayor of Rome said, “we are currently estimating it”, but it should be lower than that of Paris, because the French capital “started from a much higher level of pollution”.
Some stretches are already open for swimming
“In fact,” said Gualtieri, “there are some areas (of the Tiber, ed.)” which “on certain days would already be suitable for swimming”, but “in order to ensure that the stretch downstream of the Aniene is also fully suitable for swimming, some work is required”. “Some work has already begun because the Metropolitan Police are currently carrying out a survey of all discharges into the Aniene – including those outside the territory of Rome – which are among the main causes of the current unsuitability for swimming,” added Gualtieri. The Mayor of Rome explained that “we have already identified the three or four measures that are necessary” and “with the full support of the scientific and technological community and the institutions, we will draw up a timetable; however, based on the initial assessment, this is a goal that is well within our reach”.
