Antwerp turns an old port dock built by Napoleon into a swimming space

But just like with Paris, there are concerns about the cleanliness of the water there

This Sunday, 28 July, Antwerp will allow swimming at one of its riverport docks called Bonapartedok. The square-shaped dock will turn into a large swimming pool of sorts divided into two parts and will be available for the next six Sundays for that purpose. A part of the public, however, is concerned that the water body is not clean enough and thus not suitable for this leisurely purpose.

What’s curious about the dock in question is that its name is not random. Its construction was in fact ordered by none other than Napoleon Bonaparte in 1811.

“It will now be possible to swim there for the first time in 200 years,” Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever told Flemish public broadcaster VRT.

It’s logical that no one’s been swimming there in centuries given that the facility was designed to welcome ships. However, over the years, its original purpose has fallen to the side and it remained unused.

Clean up with high tech

This story draws eerie parallels to another city – Paris – which has been hard at work to clean up its river to make it suitable for swimming during the Olympic events and after that. Perhaps, there is a new trend among European cities to reclaim water spaces in order to provide some relief to their inhabitants during the increasingly common heatwaves.

As often happens with big cities, however, large unused spaces, be they land or water-based, will attract waste disposal. Two years ago, when the idea of turning the Bonapartedok into a swimming pool was first floated it was logically decided that the facility had to be cleaned first.

"We first made a scan with our underwater drone," explains Dennis Esseveld of Antwerp Underwater Solutions, a specialized company that mapped the waste in the dock at the request of the Port of Antwerp. "The drone has a camera and a sonar. The sonar can scan up to 40 meters deep, and that way we can see all the objects that are lying on the bottom of the Bonaparte Dock."

Divers then had the job of fishing out whatever objects were detected in the water. Among them were an electric scooter, a bicycle, a 5-meter boat mast, but also a stroller and even dirty diapers.

The city has made efforts in recent years to make the water in the dock cleaner. The water quality in the dock is permanently monitored by the city harbour. "Later this week, the water quality will be measured again, and that should show whether the water is still clean enough to make swimming possible", explains alderman for Sports Peter Wouters (N-VA). In addition, an accredited laboratory will take an extra sample, at the request of the Flemish Environment Agency. 

But even the company that cleaned up the port wonders if that’s enough because metal parts disposed in the water rust and the rust falls off to the bottom of the dock where it has stayed until now.

The City claims that this initiative will be a test one with a view to turning more space into swimmable areas in the future.

Bonapartedok can accommodate 100 swimmers at a time. Swimming is free but children under 12 will not be allowed.