One month before the Paris Olympics, tests showed France’s major river Seine is not suitable for swimming due to high levels of pollution, France 24 reported.
The latest analyses of the Seine’s water quality reveal the river is still inappropriate for swimming over extremely high levels of pollution. This is particularly alarming against the background of various water sports scheduled to take place on the Seine in the centre of Paris during next month’s Olympic Games. Levels of E.Coli bacteria, an indicator of faecal matter, are well above the upper limits set by sports federations.
Water quality remains degraded because of unfavourable hydrological conditions, little sunshine, below-average seasonal temperatures and upstream pollution, according to the mayor’s office.
On 18 June, E.Coli levels were 10 times higher than acceptable levels and never fell below the upper limit of 1,000 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres (CFU/ml) used by the World Triathlon Federation. The reading for enterococci bacteria was better, but it was still at unsafe levels for several days last week.
Moreover, French authorities have spent 1.4 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) over the past ten years attempting to clean up the river by improving Paris’ sewage system and building new wastewater treatment plants and storage facilities.
The problem, however, lies in the fact that major storms continue to wreak havoc on the capital’s sewage system, some of which dates back to the 19th century, resulting in untreated sewage directly discharging into the river. In addition, heavy rainfall over the past few months has been detrimental to the Seine, resulting in water levels four to five times higher than standard levels.
Organisers, for their part, still believe that dry weather and sunshine in July will be enough to make the Seine suitable for the world’s best athletes. Tony Estanguet, chief organiser of the Paris 2024 Games, expressed his hopes to reporters earlier this week during a visit to the Olympic village in northern Paris:
We are still confident with the delivery of the competitions in the river Seine. We knew from the beginning that the plan that we decided was really aligned with good conditions at the end of July. Now we are entering the final lap and the good zone.
