A group of Paris residents are planning a protest of a scale only seen in France. Plan to implement Ahead of the Summer Olympics, a mass defecation took place in protest against the quality of the Seine’s water.
The protests appear to be the result of public dissatisfaction with the progress of a $1.5 billion government project to clean up the Seine ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The government has promised to make the river swimmable before the Olympics open in late July. Indeed, President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have pledged to swim in the Seine before the Olympics to prove it is safe.
But so far, most plans to clean up the Seine have failed. The river was sampled Tests at various points found that the river continues to contain “alarming” levels of bacteria coming from sewage and other sources, including “alarming levels of bacterial contamination at the Pont Alexandre III” where the swimming events for the triathlon and marathon swimming competitions are due to begin.
Unidentified provocateurs, apparently unhappy with the government’s progress, started posting tweets under the hashtag “#JeChieDansLaSeineLe23JuinThis translates to a slightly vulgar version of “We pooped in the Seine on June 23rd.” The website urges protesters to join in: “After leaving us in the poop, it’s their responsibility to bathe in our poop.”
An anonymous source from the website told local media outlet ActuParis: “The initial aim was to make a joke with an ironic hashtag. After all, will people really make a scene on the Seine and take extreme action? Nothing is ruled out.”
France’s efforts to tackle water quality issues are not new for the Olympics. During the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suffer from unsanitary conditions and pollution problemsAs a result, visiting athletes have been advised not to enter the water to protect their health and safety.
Local French authorities blamed unusually heavy rainfall for the deterioration of the Seine’s water quality, and say they had planned to open additional disinfection plants to improve the water quality before the Olympics.
