Big jump to save Europe’s rivers
Over the weekend up to 300,000 people simultaneously jumped into rivers around Germany and Europe to show that they care about the state of their rivers and waterways. The project dubbed Big Jump was initiated by a French-based organisation called the European Rivers Network (ERN). Back in 1995 they organised a swimming day in the Loire river in France. Then in 1997 with German partnerships ERN began the Living Elbe project with the aim of cleaning up the Elbe river by 2002. Back when Germany was reunified the Elbe river was the most polluted river in Europe. The first International Swimming day in 2002 saw more than a hundred thousand people jump into the Elbe river from the spring in the Czech Republic, to the estuary in Hamburg. The project was a great success! Today both the salmon and people have returned. ERN decided to broaden their horizons, planning a Europe-wide Big Jump for 2005. Cinnamon Nippard reports from Berlin.