Latest news with #bathing
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Advice against bathing at nine beaches lifted
Advice against bathing at nine beaches in Thanet has been lifted, the local council has confirmed. Thanet District Council temporarily put restrictions in place due to a notification from Southern Water that "storm wastewater was discharged into the sea" as a result of the heavy rain overnight on 18 July. Storm wastewater is a combination of sewage and surface water. The council added that following on from the recent dry weather, pollution was also possible from surface water runoff. Beach users were advised to stay out of the water during this time. The nine beaches where restrictions have been lifted are: West Bay, St Mildred's Bay, Westbrook Bay, Margate Main Sands, Walpole Bay, Botany Bay, Kingsgate Bay, Joss Bay and Ramsgate Western Undercliff. The authority said that due to a further discharge by Southern Water on Saturday, the advice not to bath at five beaches on the East Kent coast remains in place. The affected beaches are: Stone Bay, Viking Bay, Louisa Bay, Dumpton Gap and Ramsgate Main Sands. The district council said it was in contact with the Environment Agency and Southern Water to establish further updates. Warning signs are in place at affected beaches and it is hoped restrictions can be lifted "as soon as possible", it added.. Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. More on this story Southern Water pleads guilty to 13 Kent sewage spills Sewage discharges to halve by 2030, minister pledges Related internet links Thanet District Council Southern Water Environment Agency
BBC News
4 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Advice against bathing lifted at nine Kent beaches
Advice against bathing at nine beaches in Thanet has been lifted, the local council has confirmed. Thanet District Council temporarily put restrictions in place due to a notification from Southern Water that "storm wastewater was discharged into the sea" as a result of the heavy rain overnight on 18 wastewater is a combination of sewage and surface water. The council added that following on from the recent dry weather, pollution was also possible from surface water users were advised to stay out of the water during this time. The nine beaches where restrictions have been lifted are: West Bay, St Mildred's Bay, Westbrook Bay, Margate Main Sands, Walpole Bay, Botany Bay, Kingsgate Bay, Joss Bay and Ramsgate Western authority said that due to a further discharge by Southern Water on Saturday, the advice not to bath at five beaches on the East Kent coast remains in affected beaches are: Stone Bay, Viking Bay, Louisa Bay, Dumpton Gap and Ramsgate Main district council said it was in contact with the Environment Agency and Southern Water to establish further signs are in place at affected beaches and it is hoped restrictions can be lifted "as soon as possible", it added..
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Full list of designated bathing waters as Scotland sees another heatwave
WITH Scotland seeing yet another heatwave, Scots are likely looking for places to cool down. On Friday and Saturday, temperatures are expected to reach as high as 30C, leading to an extreme wildfire warning being issued by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Many people may be turning towards swimming or going to the beach as a way of coping with the heat. READ MORE: Main stage act pulls out of TRNSMT just hours before festival starts The environment watchdog, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), has compiled a list of all of the designated bathing waters in Scotland. The list contains around 90 areas which have been specifically identified as locations where bathing is common. Sepa monitors these areas for bacteria, to ensure the water quality is safe for people to bathe in. See the full list of designated bathing areas below. Aberdeen Beach Balmedie Collieston Cruden Bay Fraserburgh (Philorth) Fraserburgh (Tiger Hill) Inverboyndie Peterhead (Lido) Rosehearty Stonehaven Arbroath (West Links) Carnoustie Lunan Bay Monifieth Montrose Ettrick Bay Ganavan Luss Bay Machrihanish Portobello (Central) Portobello (West) Wardie Bay Brighouse Bay Carrick Dhoon Bay Mossyard Rockcliffe Sandyhills Southerness Broughty Ferry Broad Sands Dunbar (Belhaven) Dunbar (East) Fisherrow Sands Gullane Longniddry North Berwick (Milsey Bay) North Berwick (West) Seacliff Seton Sands Thorntonloch Whitesands Yellowcraig Aberdour (Silver Sands) Aberdour Harbour (Black Sands) Anstruther (Billow Ness) Burntisland Crail (Roome Bay) Elie (Harbour) and Earlsferry Elie (Ruby Bay) Kinghorn (Harbour Beach) Kinghorn (Pettycur) Kingsbarns Kirkcaldy (Seafield) Level Lower Largo St Andrews (East Sands) St Andrews (West Sands) Achmelvich Dores Dornoch Dunnet Gairloch Beach Loch Morlich Nairn (Central) Nairn (East) Rosemarkie Sand Beach Gairloch Thurso Lunderston Bay Cullen Bay Findhorn Lossiemouth (East) Irvine Largs (Pencil Beach) Millport Bay Saltcoats/Ardrossan Seamill Coldingham Eyemouth Pease Bay Ayr (South Beach) Barassie Beach Culzean Girvan Heads of Ayr Maidens Prestwick Troon (South Beach) A map of all the designated bathing waters in Scotland is also available here.
Malay Mail
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
The Seine star of the summer again in Paris
PARIS, July 6 — The Seine, which played a starring role in the 2024 Paris Olympics, again takes centre stage in the capital this summer with the opening of three bathing sites. Here are things you need to know about the storied waterway. From Vikings to D-Day From wars to revolutions, most of the seismic events in French history have played out along the banks of the 775-kilometre-long Seine. The Vikings travelled up the river on their longboats in the 9th century, torching Rouen in 841 and later besieging Paris. In 1944, Allied forces bombed most of the bridges downstream of Nazi-occupied Paris to prepare the ground for the D-Day landings which led to the liberation of western Europe. Monet's muse French impressionist master Claude Monet spent his life painting the river from different viewpoints. Hollywood starlet Doris Day, British rock singer Marianne Faithfull and US crooner Dean Martin all sang about it. And during one of her raging rows with her songwriter partner Serge Gainsbourg, late singer and actress Jane Birkin jumped into it. The Seine has long inspired artists, authors, musicians... as well as legions of couples who have sworn their undying love by chaining personalised padlocks to the bridges of Paris. Barging ahead Taking a cruise on the Seine is on most visitors' bucket lists, but the Seine is also a working river, with around 20 million tonnes of goods transported on France's second-busiest river each year—the equivalent of about 800,000 lorry-loads. Bathing again Swimming in the Seine, which was all the rage in the 17th century when people used to dive in naked, has been banned since 1923 for health and safety reasons. France has invested heavily to ensure the water will be safe for the public to swim in this summer. Days before the 2024 Olympic Games began Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo dove into the Seine in front of journalists from around the world. The open-water swimming events and triathlon took place there. From July 5, the public will be able to access three bathing sites at bras Marie in the heart of the historic centre, the Grenelle district in the west of Paris, as well as Bercy in the east. As the water is quite shallow people will not be allowed to dive in. Mind the python Cleaning up the Seine also has its macabre side. Between 50 and 60 corpses a year are fished out of the water. Dredging of the river in recent years has also come up with voodoo dolls with pins stuck in them, a (dead) three-metre-long python, an artillery shell dating back to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the trophy of the Six Nations rugby tournament, dropped during a victory party on the river after France's win in 2022. — AFP
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
I jumped into ‘filthy' River Seine... and survived
It is one small step for this Paris correspondent but a giant leap for Parisians. After more than a century, during which it was off-limits to the public owing to pollution and safety concerns, the River Seine has reopened to bathers. And I was one of the first 100 members of the public to take a dip in the river since 1923. On Saturday, three areas of the river opened to the public – one near the national library, another within view of the Eiffel Tower, and a third in the bras-Marie on the Right bank of the île Saint-Louis, not far from Notre-Dame. A Parisian myself for almost 30 years, it was with great excitement and some trepidation that I chose to take the plunge in the most central of the bathing areas, the bras-Marie, the first to open to the public. We had all heard the endless debates over whether the once-filthy river was really clean enough. Would the sewers overflow and flood the Seine with faecal matter? Would we all contract within three days? Encouragingly, the water looked a relatively healthy green and exuded no evil odours, at least from a distance. The truth is Paris has come a long way since Jacques Chirac – in a classic case of Gallic hyperbole – famously declared in 1988 that he would be swimming in the Seine within six years. In fact, it took 36 years and a herculean clean-up operation costing €1.6 billion (£1.3 billion) – including a vast run-off basin that can hold 20 Olympic swimming pools' worth of water – for his dream to come true when last year the Seine was famously opened to athletes for the Paris Olympics. Even so, heavy rain meant that only five of the 11 scheduled events were able to take place. Now, authorities are confident they have improved matters even further and to prove this point, Eve Plenel, the head of public health for Paris City Hall, was up for a dip. 'There is no need to worry. The water is tested every 15 minutes for everything. If (it) is not swimmable, it will be closed until it is, just like beaches,' she said, insisting the Seine was now among the most closely scrutinised waterways in France. Personally, I was more concerned about the prospect of a close encounter with the pacu, the testicle-biting fish that was caught a decade ago in the Seine. 'I know they eat pigeons' I also struggled to erase images of a 2.17 metres giant catfish caught last month within a few hundred yards of the bathing zone, cut off from the rest of the river by a few fig-leaf buoys. I know they eat pigeons. Small children at a push? Thankfully, the bathing area is out of bounds for the under-14s. Another worry was being squashed by a bateau-mouche, the tourist boats that ply the river and point out the sights. Some 300 craft pass the bras-Marie every day. Paris town hall officials assured me they were barred from passing during bathing opening hours – to the reported fury of tourist operators. Perhaps all this – plus the coolish weather after a blistering heatwave – explained the relatively modest queue that formed ahead of the 8am opening time when Paris' Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo came in person to see the first bathers off. In the queue was Noémie Wira, 30. 'I'm a Parisienne and it's such a thrill to be among the first to take a dip. It's taken a century, but the promise has been kept. It's great to say our generation can swim in the Seine in three amazing locations. Am I worried about my health? I'll let you know in three days,' she told me. Sarah Hosking, 53, originally from Vancouver, Canada, and a Parisienne for the past 17 years, said she felt 'a little leery about opening my mouth' but that it was a 'dream come true' to be able to swim in central Paris, 'just like in Copenhagen'. She sang the mayor's praises for 'pushing it through'. 'Enough of doing things that are just for tourists. We want stuff for us.' Only on Tuesday, Paris was sweltering under record 40C temperatures but the air was almost chilly as I approached the water. However, there was relief when we were informed the temperature was a bath-like 25C. I strode through the turnstile without a ticket – all bathing areas are totally free and there is no time limit, but the bras-Marie zone is limited to 150 bathers at a time (the other sites can hold 300 and 150 respectively). A green flag fluttered over the wooden decking that serves as a changing area with lockers to store belongings. There are no changing rooms. A yellow flag signals caution, and red is no-go. Caps and goggles are not compulsory but all bathers are required to be tethered to a fetching yellow inflatable tow float. The next hurdle was the obligatory 'swim test'. 'Well, it's not really a test, we just observe people's first few strokes and fish them out if they don't pass muster,' said lifeguard Trady, who kept an eagle eye on bathers. 'This is a small, protected area but the Seine is a dangerous place,' he warned. Indeed, a sign outside points out potential threats: passing boats, currents, and 'gripping plants'. Intriguingly, it was only in French. Could this be some covert plan to reduce over-tourism?, I mused. But now, the moment had finally arrived and I glided into the river and took a few strokes before plunging below. It felt exhilarating and frankly historic to be among the first 100 members of the public to bathe in Paris since 1923. Parisian Hector Pellegars, 27, said: 'I didn't expect it but there was a feeling of intimacy between me, the city and the river which I have never experienced. It was also very weird as the image I had of the Seine when growing up in Paris was an open-air sewer. Now the water is clean enough for us to swim in and it's fantastic.' Paddling past was Tom, a British 24-year-old from Bath now living in Lyon. He said: 'In England, I've swum in some pretty grim rivers. Now we realise just how grim they are with all the water company problems going on, so this doesn't bother me much, frankly.' Could it catch on in the UK? 'The Thames is a bit of a long shot. But if they've done it here, why not?,' he said. It was a delightful and surreal experience to view Paris from water level after all these years of observing it from the banks. Indeed, it had become a running joke for me to predict: 'One day I will literally go 'in Seine'.' That day has finally arrived, and the City of Lights will never be quite the same again.
