French water charities on Monday sounded the alarm about pollution in the Seine, just over 100 days until the opening of the Olympic Games, when the water is scheduled to be used for swimming events.
The Surfrider Foundation announced that the laboratory analyzed six months of testing conducted over the winter and concluded that the river's water remains contaminated and potentially dangerous.
In an open letter, the Biarritz-based charity said: “We are concerned about the growing concerns not only about the water quality of the Seine, but also about the risks faced by athletes traveling through contaminated water. I want to share it with others.”
Paris authorities are racing against time to clean up the Seine before the Olympics open on July 26, with the famous waterway set to play a starring role during the Games.
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It will host the opening ceremony and then be used for marathon swimming and triathlon competitions, as long as contamination permits.
Cleaning the Seine has been promoted as one of the key legacy outcomes of the Paris 2024 Games, with Mayor Anne Hidalgo planning to build three public baths on the Seine next year.
She and President Emmanuel Macron also pledged to take a dip before the Olympics to prove they are safe. It's been just over a century since public swimming was banned at the Olympics in 1923.
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Some 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) have been spent on upgrading sewage and stormwater treatment facilities to reduce the amount of untreated faeces flowing into the river and its main tributary, the Marne.
Marc Guillaume, Paris's top national security official, accused Surfrider of having “very little knowledge on the subject” and said: “If we conduct an experiment on the Seine today and compare it with what will happen next summer, There's no point in doing that,” he added.
According to Surfrider, the tests were carried out between September and March by Annalee Coe of the Hauts de Paris Institute and the Environmental Analysis Group under the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont de l'Arma, the Olympic swimming venues. .
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European water quality standards and the International Triathlon and Open Water Swimming Federation set limits on the concentration of two bacteria (E. coli and enterococci) that are indicators of the presence of faeces.
Surfrider said only one of the 14 tests yielded a “satisfactory” result.
Overall, tests showed “alarming” levels that were twice, and in some cases, three times higher than the maximum allowable dose. One measurement showed E. coli at seven times the maximum level.
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Paris authorities stressed that the samples were taken during the winter, which was the wettest period in the past 30 years.
Heavy rains have been known to overwhelm Paris' more than 100-year-old sewage system, discharging untreated wastewater directly into the river.
“The first quarter of 2024 saw very heavy rainfall (250,000 ml in three months, double the 2023 level), which worsened water quality,” the Paris prefecture said in a statement.
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Additionally, water disinfection facilities were not operational during the winter and were scheduled to be operational prior to the Olympics.
“There has never been a question of making the Seine swimmable all year round,” Guillaume added.
In southeast Paris, a huge new underground rainwater facility is due to be completed later this month, and in the center of the capital the last sewer connections for riverboats are now being completed.
Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire told reporters last Friday that cleaning up the Seine was “probably the most difficult (Olympic) project to organize.”
Last July and August, three Olympic test events on the Seine were canceled due to elevated E. coli levels.
The disruption was blamed on extremely heavy rain and a malfunctioning sewage valve that caused sewage to be discharged into the river.
Last month, Brazilian swimmer Ana Marcela Cunha, the reigning Olympic open water champion, called on Paris to have a Plan B in case the Seine is not ready.
Organizers say the swimming event could be postponed if there is heavy rain, but they do not intend to do so.
Olympic open water swimming has been hit by pollution concerns in the past.
At the end of a 2019 test event ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, swimmers protested against the water quality in Tokyo Bay.
The possibility of swimming in contaminated Guanabara Bay was also discussed during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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