The river Seine in Paris is too polluted to safely welcome Olympic swimming events, according to research published by an international environmental group.
Pollution of faecal origin
In an open letter sent to Olympic and Paralympic stakeholders, the Surfrider Foundation revealed it has found “concentrations of E. coli and enterococci, intestinal bacteria and formidable indicators of pollution of faecal origin” in bi-monthly monitoring of the Seine it has performed over the last six months. Chemical pollutants were not measured.
The test samples were taken from the Pont de l’Alma and the Pont Alexandre III, the section of the river where the triathlon, marathon swimming and paratriathlon events are scheduled to take place during this summer’s games.
“Of the 14 samples taken,” the group went on “whether after heavy rain or on a sunny day, only 1 enabled our team to conclude that the quality of the water in the Seine at this particular point was even satisfactory.” As a result, swimmers in the Seine face “significant risks to their health”, the group added.
Clean up work is under way
The Seine has not been legally swimmable since 1923, when boat traffic and pollution became too dangerous for the activity. But with wild and river swimming becoming more and more popular, Paris City Council is implementing a Bathing Plan intended to make the river swimmable again by the summer of 2025. The clean up has coincided with work towards the Olympics and Paralympic events.
This entails a €1.4 billion investment in a 50,000 cubic metre rainwater storage basin upstream of the Austerlitz bridge, which will hold storm overflows before releasing them into the sewers – which themselves are undergoing modernisation work. While work is under way, many homes in Paris are still not connected to the sanitation system and release waste into the river. Boats too are part of the problem, lacking sewer connections in ports. Figures for 2022 show that 1.9 million cubic metres of wastewater went straight into the Seine that year.
City of Paris officials appear to have brushed off the Surfrider concerns, casting doubt on them because the samples were taken during the rainier months. In a statement they said they were “surprised” by the timing of the Foundation’s report, and pointed out that the river “is not intended to accommodate swimmers from mid-September to June” with the Austerlitz Basin not due for completion until 2 May 2024.
