500 kilometers
British environmentalist swims the length of the Hudson River
Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh, 53, ended his month-long river journey along the Hudson River at the lower tip of Manhattan
© Seth Wenig/AP/dpa
Environmentalist Lewis Pugh wants to draw attention to water protection at the UN General Assembly – to do this, he swam along the entire Hudson River.
A British long-distance swimmer and environmentalist swam the entire length of the Hudson River to draw attention to the water quality in the river, which has now improved. “Fifty years ago this river was one of the most polluted rivers in the world,” said Lewis Pugh with a view of the almost 500 kilometer long waterway, whose mouth in New York he reached on Wednesday (local time).
Hundreds of kilometers through the Hudson River
“We need clean, healthy rivers,” the 53-year-old told reporters after traveling the entire route from the source of the Hudson in the Adirondack Mountains to Manhattan in a month without assistance. With the campaign, Pugh wants to draw attention to the importance of protecting waters shortly before the start of the UN General Assembly next week.
In the past, the Hudson sometimes changed color from one day to the next depending on what industrial pollutants were being added to it, said Pugh, who is also a UN patron of the oceans. The river is now so clean that it is possible to swim across it. Lewis hopes that the example will serve as inspiration: “If this can be done in the Hudson,” other rivers could also become clean again, he emphasized.
Pictures of the day
Crackling waiting
Take a look in the gallery: The pictures of the day take you all over the world – and sometimes tell about big things, sometimes about small things.