Swimmable Cities - 12 Months of mainstreaming 'Swimmability' in Municipalities

By Matthew Sykes

“Rotterdam is a city shaped by water – and increasingly, reclaimed by it in the best possible way. Hosting the world’s first Swimmable Cities Summit reflects our deep commitment to creating healthy, inclusive and climate-resilient urban environments. We’re proud to welcome so many international pioneers here to the Rijnhaven – a living example of how innovation, nature and community can come together to make urban swimming a reality. This summit is not just about swimming – it’s about restoring our relationship with water, and leading together toward cleaner, more liveable cities for future generations.” Pascal Lansink-Bastemeijer, Vice Mayor, City of Rotterdam

This article is part of a series on the #Road2Baku for the 13th World Urban Forum.

Mayors’ Roundtable for Swimmable Cities, January 2026

Embedding ‘Swimmability’ into Urban Planning & Integrated Water Management

Since the inaugural Swimmable Cities Summit in Rotterdam in June 2025, we’ve switched the movement’s focus from ‘advocacy’ to ‘implementation’. A significant milestone in this process was the Mayors’ Roundtable for Swimmable Cities in January this year.

Hosted by the global Swimmable Cities initiative, in partnership with the City of Paris and Mayor of London’s Office, the augural Mayor’s Roundtable for Swimmable Cities supported high-level conversations between mayors and city leaders about ‘swimmability’ as a transformational catalyst to boost urban liveability and resilience.

Co-Chaired by Deputy Mayor’s Pierre Rabadan (Paris) and Mete Coban (London) as well as Catherine McKenna (Swimmer & former Canadian Minister for Environment & Climate Change), the Roundtable welcomed 50 participants from 24 municipalities and 8 partner organisations, exploring:

- How can swimmability make cities more liveable, resilient, equitable and prosperous?

- What are the barriers to urban waterway swimmability?

- How can cities work together to share and scale solutions?

Highlights included opening interventions by Anacláudia Rossbach (Executive Director at UN Habitat) and Mariana Mazzucato (Professor at University College London). We also had representation from the World Bank, Bloomberg Associates, UNEP, ICLEI, C40 Cities and the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

Importantly, municipal participants ranged from roles in international relations, urban planning, integrated water management, economic development, parks and recreation, and tourism. This integration is key mainstreaming ‘swimmability’.

Building capability & capacity within Municipalities

This work with municipalities and water authorities has been going for over 12 months now. It started with our Pre-Summit Cities Workshops (Mar, Apr, May 2025) and matured into a Community of Practice for Municipalities, Water Authorities and Government Agencies; co-led by fellow Co-Founder Ana Mumladze Detering and myself.

Along the journey, we’ve been developing a Swimmable Cities Framework which combines 7 enabling conditions for ‘swimmability’ and positions the work within the bigger vision of creating more liveable and resilient communities. We started with 11 municipalities, and now 50+ municipalities across 5 continents are involved.

SC Community of Practice sessions for 2025/26:
Session 1: Policy Reform (Aug 5)
Session 2: Waterway Health & Restoration (Sept 26)
Session 3: Swim Infrastructure (Nov 18)
Session 4: Investment Partnership Models (Jan 28 ‘26)
Session 5: Climate Resilience & Community Health (Mar 25th)
Session 6: Drowning Prevention & Water Literacy (Scheduled for May 27th)

Swimmable Cities Framework (based on inputs from SC Summit, Rotterdam, June ’25)

Embedding ‘Swimmability’ into your work

Now, leading up to the World Urban Forum in Baku, we’re sharing these stories so that more urban leaders and professionals can consider how to embed ‘swimmability’ into their own decision-making. From Swimmable Cities’ perspective, we want you to know that this support is already available and our plans are to scale so that it becomes even easier to access tools, roadmaps, indicators, case studies and more.

If you work inside a municipality or water authority, email us for more information about our Community of Practice: hello@swimmablecities.org

If you’re a non-government, industry or academic actor, join the alliance via our website and stay connected on socials so that you’re the first to know about upcoming events and opportunities.

Dive deeper!

Learn more about the World Urban Forum -

https://wuf.unhabitat.org/

Join Swimmable Cities alliance - Round #9 is now open -

https://www.swimmablecities.org/