With under a month to go before the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, the River Seine remains too polluted to host the Games’ swimming events, according to municipal test results.
Competitions due to take place in the river during the international sporting extravaganza include the 10km freestyle and the triathlon, at the Pont de l’Alma and the Pont Alexandre III. In addition, the opening ceremony will feature a unique, free-to-access procession along the water, with international Olympic delegations cruising the Seine on boats.
Faecal pollution spikes
However, water analyses published by Paris City Hall on Friday, 28 June, show not falling but rising concentrations of two strains of faecal bacteria whose elimination is critical to water safety. E.Coli and enterococci bacteria were both present in the river at levels that exceed caps imposed by sport federations, with worrying spikes seen between 18 and 20 June.
E.Coli was found at 10 times the maximum threshold and did not fall below the 1,000 units per 100 millilitres (cfu/ml) threshold set by the World Triathlon Federation at all during the test period. Enterococci levels were also unsafe for multiple days.
Unfavourable conditions?
To make matters worse, those samples were taken several days prior to a planned “dirty protest” by campaigners who urged people to “poop in the Seine” on 23 June, to signal their discontent at the 1.4 billion euros being spent on the Olympics, while they claim domestic social issues rumble on unaddressed. So the water quality cannot be blamed on a one-off surge in effluent.
I almost feel sorry for Macron and the mayor of Paris, as this #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin AKA, "I shit in the Seine on June 23 is indeed a bowel movement https://t.co/WcB7K2AelV pic.twitter.com/41TLOpdaMY
— Jon Najarian (@jonnajarian) June 24, 2024
Instead, the report issued by Paris authorities blames “unfavourable conditions” for the continued deterioration of the water, despite the budget-busting clean-up work to build a 50,000-cubic-metre rainwater storage basin upstream of the Austerlitz bridge, designed to contain storm overflows before releasing them into the sewers – which are also being modernised.
“The quality of the water continues to deteriorate as a result of unfavourable hydrological conditions,” the report says, with examples such as “rainfall, high flow, little sunshine, temperatures below seasonal norms and pollution from upstream.” The river is running high at the moment, at four to five times its normal seasonal level.
Doubt is now looming over the Olympic swimming events, and a rehearsal for the opening ceremony set for Monday 1 July was cancelled, but regional prefect Marc Guillaume remained optimistic. “We expect things to improve this week, given the weather,” he told AFP.
Thanks in part to the spotlight being shone by the Olympics and the preparation work underway, the Seine is supposed to become swimmable again by the general public in 2025, ending a ban that has lasted over 100 years.
