Clean Rivers Shouldn’t Be a Dare: Reflections from a Swiss River Swim

 

/Al Cho – EVP, Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer – Xylem/

/ Oct 23, 2025 /

On a recent trip to Xylem’s European headquarters in Switzerland, I found myself walking along the Limmat River, which flows through the heart of Zurich. A colleague dared me to jump in. I hesitated.

Growing up in the U.S., I’ve been conditioned to see rivers as places you don’t swim. Too often, they’re off-limits – polluted, unsafe, or neglected.

Water is the foundation of life, yet too many of our rivers and streams are compromised by scarcity, contamination, or underinvestment. At Xylem’s global headquarters in Washington, DC, we sit near the Anacostia River, which flows into the Potomac and eventually the Chesapeake Bay. These rivers have faced decades of pollution, and on most days they’re still not clean enough for a swim. That reality is shared by waterways across the U.S. and the world.

The Limmat – like many rivers in Switzerland – tells a different story. Thanks to careful stewardship, it runs clear and inviting—safe enough that I finally took the plunge. The swim was refreshing, but the feeling ran deeper: a sense of freedom, possibility, and a glimpse of what water means when it’s truly valued.

The contrast between Switzerland’s swimmable Rhine and Washington’s struggling rivers underscores the importance of our mission. Every day, Xylem colleagues work to make water safer, more accessible, and more sustainable—across cities and rural communities, across the globe. It’s not just about technology. It’s about impact. Every clean, safe waterway brings us closer to a world where clean water is never a privilege or a dare.

That’s also why we establish the Reservoir Center for Water Solutions in Washington. Reservoir is bringing together policymakers, researchers, innovators, and advocates to accelerate solutions—whether it’s tackling pollution, modernizing aging infrastructure, addressing climate-driven water stress, or building the next-generation water workforce. More than 75 partners, from local riverkeepers to global NGOs, are showing what’s possible when we work together across sectors to put water at the center.

That Swiss swim lingers in my mind as a vision of what’s possible. Too many rivers today serve as warnings, not invitations. But Reservoir and its partners believe every community deserves water you can swim in, drink from, and depend on.

And until that’s true everywhere, we’ll keep working to make it so.