Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site
People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient
Open original article- Ledger record
- #752
- First seen
- 19 Aug 2026, 16:46 UTC
- Last checked
- 20 Aug 2026, 13:48 UTC
- Version history
- 2 versions
- Current fingerprint
82211d3576e0...365f86
Publisher layer
Recorded article metadata
- Publisher
- The Guardian
- Country
- England / United Kingdom
- Source published
- 19 Aug 2026, 16:32 UTC
- Source updated
- No update timestamp supplied
- Byline
- Sandra Laville Environment correspondent
- Section
- Pollution
People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient
Change layer
Observed version timeline
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2
Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site
People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient
Changed fieldsbylinedescriptionTextcontentTexttags- Version SHA-256
82211d3576e0...365f86- Capture SHA-256
3a69fa5c07f0...ba3b77
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1
Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site
People and pets told to keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s plans to pump treated sewage Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient pollu
Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags- Version SHA-256
3795e91273a5...da690a- Capture SHA-256
eca77abe956c...9a8dbe
Interpretation layer
Labels with declared origins
Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.
- machine content-type Reported news observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
- publisher category England rss-category
- publisher category Environment rss-category
- publisher category Life and style rss-category
- publisher category London rss-category
- publisher category Pollution rss-category
- publisher category Swimming rss-category
- publisher category Thames Water rss-category
- publisher category UK news rss-category
- publisher category Water rss-category
- publisher category Water industry rss-category
Public response layer
Reception snapshots
Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.
Evidence layer
Capture provenance
- Capture ID
- #153
- Observed
- 19 Aug 2026, 17:31 UTC
- HTTP result
- 200 / parsed
- Raw payload
- 468,170 bytes, private gzip evidence
- Collector
- news-ledger/0.1
- Public boundary
- metadata and excerpt