Swimmers enjoy three new enclosures that were opened for use earlier this month along the Bassin de la Villette in Paris. The area, fed by water from a barge canal, uses filter mesh to keep out foreign objects. But improvements in urban water quality were essential. As the website CityLab reports: 'For years, the French capital has been promising to open up its urban waterways for safe, clean public swimming. This month, it’s done exactly that.'