On September 19, 2024, before summer takes its last breath, residents of Besançon went swimming in the Doubs, even though it is forbidden. The goal is precisely to raise the question of making the river swimmable one day, as in Dole (Jura). So, is the goal Besançon 2025?
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As the day begins to slow down this Thursday, September 19, 2024, some residents end their day on the terrace of a bar, others do a sports session or simply go home. While others have chosen to perform “a critical swim”, in Doubs.
Although swimming is currently prohibited there, residents of Besançon imagine the lives of the Swiss who, after a hard day’s work or on very hot days, cool off in the river in Bern, Basel or even Geneva.
Residents of Besançon bathed in the Doubs.
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© David Martin/FTV
Paris would not have sown a seed in the minds of some Besançon residents? Buoys, signs, wetsuits or swimsuits for the less chilly, a dozen inhabitants bathed in the Doubs.After the Seine, the Doubs?”, “clean water, not shame”, these signs attached to their buoys, they let themselves be carried along the Boucle, under the gaze of the inhabitants on the banks.
The goal is to “recreate a bathing culture in Besançon to provide free and collective access to relaxation and freshness“, we can read in the statement from the residents.I often paddle and nothing has ever happened to me with water pollution. I even think it’s cleaner than the Seine cleaned with billions of eurossays Maxime, one of the bathers, ironically, speaking to Philippe Arbez and David Martin. I think it’s just a question of surveillance, of lack of responsibility on the part of politicians.”.
Will the Doubs one day be swimmable in Besançon?
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© David Martin/FTV
Is it really mission impossible to make this water swimmable? That is the question Romain asks himself.The aim is to throw a first stone in the pond and for people who wish to address this issue to be able to do so. Swimming is prohibited by decree for reasons of hygiene and safety.” the young man explains. “But if this decree were more precise, it would allow us to put our finger on why it is prohibited, and to know what we could work on. To get to work, if it is an urban objective, to create a place for swimming in this environment”.
Comments on which Jeremy responds.What is the point of not swimming in the Doubs? That is the question. he asks. “What kind of social project do we want if we have a river and it is not swimmable?“. For him, even if the reasons are acceptable, he would like to know them in order to question them, but also to find different ways for the situation to change.
In addition to Switzerland, he takes the example of Dole (Jura), a few kilometers downstream, where residents can swim in the Doubs.The ARS takes regular samples. Why not do this here, by monitoring the water quality and determining the bathing areas?” he raises. What will be the next step in this citizens’ initiative? Will the Doubs be swimmable in the summer of 2025?
