When in Rome, make a splash: the grand plan to clean the Tiber

By the Editorial Team · Saturday, September 26, 2026

Environmental activists have revealed severe pollution in the Aniene River near Rome, including sewage overflow and illegal dumping, which jeopardizes the cleanliness of the Tiber River downstream. City officials acknowledge that addressing contamination from the Aniene is crucial to achieving their goal of making the Tiber swimmable by 2032, but significant infrastructure and monitoring improvements are still needed.

On the eastern edge of Rome, where traffic and train lines converge, a wooded area conceals the River Aniene as it flows into the Tiber, presenting an environment that could be a natural haven. However, environmental activists have highlighted significant pollution challenges that threaten this vision.

Emanuela Fiorenza, an activist and volunteer with the Aniene Water Lab, recently inspected the riverbank beneath the busy Via delle Valli bridge. She observed a concealed pipe discharging frothy white water into the Aniene, a byproduct of sewage overflow containing detergents and fecal matter. Fiorenza noted that bacterial contamination levels in this stretch of the river have reached nearly 200 times the acceptable limit for swimming, underscoring the severity of pollution.

Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, has set a goal to make the Tiber swimmable by 2032, drawing parallels to the cleanup of the Seine in Paris. “We have a work plan that can make the Tiber swimmable by 2032, as happened with the Seine in Paris. And we will do it,” Gualtieri said this week, reflecting the city administration’s commitment to long-term water quality improvements.

City officials acknowledge that the primary difficulty in achieving this goal lies not with the Tiber itself but with pollutants entering it from the Aniene River. Sabrina Alfonsi, the city council’s environmental chief, explained that while the Tiber is nearly clean enough for swimming before the confluence, contamination from the Aniene’s runoff, including sewage, industrial waste, and rubbish, remains a critical obstacle. Alfonsi also mentioned that city drains typically overflow into the Aniene during periods of heavy rainfall, although the persistent flow from the pipe beneath Via delle Valli observed even during dry conditions suggests possible blockages in the sewage infrastructure.

Volunteers like Fiorenza conduct river inspections, often by boat, to document pollution sources. She described stretches of riverbank near the medieval Nomentano Bridge where trees bear remnants of sanitary products—wet wipes and sanitary towels—that were flushed into the drains and remain undecomposed due to their synthetic materials.

Illegal dumping presents another problem. Upstream near Tivoli, outside Rome, activists have encountered the “Valley of Fridges,” a site where hundreds of discarded refrigerators and other appliances have been dumped, some washing into the river and obstructing waterways. Fiorenza reported that about 30 refrigerators were found drifting downstream this year alone, requiring manual removal to navigate around them. Additionally, debris from an abandoned travellers’ camp—broken computers, hairdryers stripped of metal parts—was seen discarded near the riverbank. Residents reportedly salvage metals for resale and abandon the rest in the river, contributing further to the pollution flowing toward the Tiber.

These conditions illustrate the complex challenges Rome faces in rehabilitating its waterways. While official plans are underway, activists stress the need for consistent monitoring and infrastructure upgrades to address ongoing leakage and illegal dumping before the ambitious target of a swimmable Tiber in 2032 can be realized.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.