Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was confident the Seine’s water quality would reach Olympic standards this summer and could prove it by perhaps swimming there with President Emmanuel Macron.
The Seine is the venue for Olympic marathon swimming and Olympic and Paralympic triathlon swimming competitions.
Paris struggles to prepare for security and transportation ahead of Olympics
Asked on Tuesday whether he would be able to fulfill his promise to swim in the Seine before the competition, Hidalgo said: “Of course, because the water quality will be better.”
For decades, the Seine was too toxic for most fish and swimmers, and was used primarily as a waterway for goods and people, or as a water graveyard for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming in the Seine has been illegal since 1923, with some exceptions.
Hidalgo mentioned a new facility built specifically to clean the river, whose water quality was recently condemned by environmental groups.
A water treatment plant in Champigny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, began operations on Tuesday.
Athletes swim in the Seine River during the Paris Triathlon on Sunday, July 10, 2011 in Paris. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, that she is confident that water quality will reach Olympic standards this summer. (AP Photo/Lionel Chironneau)
Next week, a giant reservoir will be officially opened that aims to reduce the need to dump untreated bacteria-laden wastewater into the Seine when it rains. A giant hole dug next to Paris’ Austerlitz train station will hold sewage equivalent to 20 Olympic swimming pools, rather than being discharged raw through storm drains into the river. , will be processed.
Hildago said he has invited government officials to swim in the Seine at an event called “The Big Dive” to be held in late June or early July. He confirmed that as well as President Macron, who has promised to swim in the river himself, the Paris Olympic organizing committee and IOC president Thomas Bach have also been invited.
“We’re going to jump into the Seine River and a lot of volunteers have already come forward and come and jump with me and all the athletes who will be there,” Hidalgo said. “We can all safely swim in the Seine.”
Earlier this month, Paris regional governor Marc Guillaume dismissed a recent NGO report on poor water quality, saying it was based on tests conducted during the winter, when no one was swimming in the Seine.
The city plans to open some areas to the public, so water quality will need to be good enough for swimming during the tournament and, starting in 2025, in the summer. However, swimming outside of the season remains illegal.
The estimated cost of the Seine River cleanup is $1.5 billion, to be paid by state and local governments.
Guillaume said regular water quality testing will begin on June 1, when all new treatment facilities will be operational. He detailed that water quality tests will be conducted at 3 a.m. every day during the Olympics to determine whether the event will go ahead as scheduled.
Olympic organizers said if pollution levels were too high, the competition could be rescheduled and, in the worst case scenario, the triathlon’s swimming section could be canceled.
In a recent report, the Surfrider Foundation called the Seine a “particularly contaminated site” after monitoring bacterial levels for more than six months. The group concluded that athletes “will be swimming in contaminated water, posing serious risks to their health.”
The Paris mayor’s press conference on Tuesday was aimed at announcing a cultural and sports festival that will be held at 26 venues across Paris over the summer.
“We are working together to make the party beautiful,” Hidalgo said, adding that security was the authorities’ biggest concern.
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Approximately 30,000 police officers will be on duty every day during the Games, and 45,000 are expected to be on duty at the Seine River opening ceremony.
“We work with great professionalism and determination to ensure that security issues never interfere with our ultimate freedom to live together,” Hidalgo said.
