Mumbai, India
I know a lot of people in our Neatorama readership are concerned about environmental issues, nature and conservation. Unfortunately, not everyone in the world shares our priorities. This article highlights areas in which we would not want to partake in swimming or other recreational activites in the local bodies of water. Whether it's due to pollution, dangerous wildlife or other risks to our person, we might want to make mental notes of these areas in which we'd be better off locating our nearest jetted bathtub or private pool in which to relax and refresh instead.
10. Mumbai, India
While there is no shortage of beaches in India's most populous city of Mumbai, none are fit for swimming, and the goverment has made those warnings abundantly clear. The water and shoreline is polluted with a vast amount of untreated sewage. Despite the existence of a sewage treatment facility, much of the city's waste never sees it, and is discharged into the waterways. The cause of the problem is attributed to residents dumping raw sewage into storm drains.
Knowledge of the problem has done nothing to curtail it, and levels of animal and human fecal bacteria at beaches continue to rise, with readings at the most popular beach, Girgaon Chaupati, at four times the acceptable limit, and reports of skin rashes from bathers after contact with the water.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida
9. New Smyrna Beach, Florida
While the water at New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, Florida, is clean and would, in theory, make for wonderful surfing as well as swimming, there is one major problem: sharks. The waters are rich with fish, which makes them targets of sharks as prime areas for feeding. In fact, the International Shark Attack File considers New Smyrna the "shark attack capital of the world."
Experts in the field estimate that every swimmer at New Smyrna Beach is destined for a close encounter (within 10 feet) of a shark. In the year 2008, over one-third of all shark attacks in the world occurred in the waters off that county coast. Astoundingly, the state of Florida recorded more attacks in the years 2004–2013 than in both Australia and South Africa combined.
I think the only time I'd take a dip in the water of New Smyrna Beach would be with Brody, Quint, Hooper and their "bigger boat."
Read numbers eight through one on the list of places you definitely don't want to go swimming here.
Images: Wikipedia