Action Communities

Mayors for Drinkable Rivers is an international network of municipalities, of mayors and aldermen, that works towards drinkable rivers.

All municipalities, regions and water authorities in the watersheds of our rivers are invited to join. For more information, please visit the Mayors page or get in touch with us.

On Saturday October 19 2019, eleven mayors from France, Belgium and the Netherlands launched “Mayors for a Drinkable Meuse” in Charleville-Mézières, France. This mayor network learns and works towards Drinkable Rivers. The mayors have signed a declaration and the municipalities have agreed to work together to improve the water quality of the Meuse with the common long term vision of a Drinkable Meuse.

All municipalities, regions and water authorities in the Meuse watershed are invited to join. For more information, please visit the Meuse page or get in touch with us.

• Listen to the interview on Dutch radio 1 with Li An and mayor Wim Hillenaar, here.
• Listen to Boris Ravignon’s interview (french), here.

On November 22 2024, a first gathering of the Thames mayors was convened. The Thames watershed is a network of boroughs, mayors, councillors and local actors that adopt the compass of a drinkable Thames as their shared direction for actions.

On July 11th 2025, the Mayors for a Drinkable Thames network will be officially launched. We invite all mayors and councillors in the Thames watershed to join!

For more information, please visit the Thames page or get in touch with us.

In the summer of 2021 we walked from the source of the IJssel to its mouth in the IJsselmeer. 200 kilometers in ten days. Along the way people signed our manifesto to work towards a Drinkable IJssel in 30 years time. This aim is supported by twenty organisations in the IJssel watershed, ranging from municipalities, provinces, regional and national water authorities, drinking water producers, farmers and cultural organisations.

For more information please visit the IJssel page or get in touch with us at Waterschap Vallei en Veluwe.

From the source of the Berkel in the ‘Baumberge’ near Billerbeck (Germany) to the mouth of the river in the river Ijssel in Zutphen (The Netherlands), we walked in 2024, togehter with 500 people who joined us.

We have  drawn up a Drinkale Berkel Statement and invite you to show your commitment by signing it. 

For more information please visit the Berkel page or get in touch with us.

Youth for Drinkable Rivers is a community of young people with a passion for water. Some of them are young professionals, some are students, and some just have a big heart for healthy rivers. They spread the story about drinkable rivers to amplify the voice of the river – together with Li An. They organise different activities for a wide audience and involved parties. They connect with current events to create awareness about water quality, working towards our dream that one day we can take a sip from our local river. They are organising a river walk along the Nederrijn 4-7 September 2025.

For more information please visit the Youth page or get in touch with us.

A swimmable river is the phase before reaching the drinkable river. We outlined this in this article which we wrote a few years ago.
Thanks to the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, the swimmable Seine got worldwide attention and our collective awareness of the importance of water was raised. Even though we are aware that the water is not perfectly swimmable yet, it was powerful to see how Paris has taken care of the Seine in preparation for the Olympics. We look forward to the steps Paris and the river Seine are going to take in the direction of making the Seine swimmable for all again. Stemming from annual Amsterdam City Swim and inspired by our work with drinkable rivers, the citizen initiative Swimmable Rivers was launched last year. Another initiative that is very much in line with this is Swimmable Cities. Of course, Drinkable Rivers has signed the charter. Their upcoming summit will be in Rotterdam 22-24 June, register here.