Quite a symbol.
On the ancient paved quay facing Notre-Dame de Paris, modernity has taken the form of a cast iron hatch: to make swimming possible in the Seine for and after the Olympic Games, barges are in the process of being 'all be connected to the wastewater network.
The winter floods have left the river very high, but the Montebello quay (Ve) is once again accessible to pedestrians.
Like the 27 other port sectors of Paris located on the Seine, this quay is now connected to the capital's sanitation network.
Each boat location has a connection valve and a pump which sends its wastewater into a well, explains Morgane Sanchez, director of the Paris Seine agency of Haropa, the public establishment which manages the ports of Paris , Rouen and Le Havre.
“And in this well, a second pump returns the dirty water to the combined network”
mixing wastewater and rainwater from the capital, she summarizes.
Haropa has invested 12 million euros in this project, which is part of the 1.4 billion public effort to improve the quality of the Seine for the marathon swimming and triathlon events during the Olympics (July 26 - August 11) .
And the opening of swimming sites for the general public in the summer of 2025. The owners of the approximately 250 Parisian barges, some of whom are quite old, still need to do the necessary work to connect.
Read alsoRace against time to make the Seine swimmable at the Olympics
An investment for individuals
As is often the case, everything comes down to the wallet: the operation generally costs
“between 1000 and 10,000 euros depending on the boat and the layout”
to be carried out, indicates Morgane Sanchez.
In this range, owners can count on a state subsidy, via the Water Agency, of up to 4,200 euros maximum.
The public authorities therefore went
“door-to-door to convince, and help to do so
,” explains Christophe Noël du Payrat, chief of staff of the regional prefect.
Commercial establishments had to be
“exemplary”
, believes Candice Cinquin, owner of
“La Nouvelle Seine”
, both restaurant and performance hall, who was able to go beyond the ceiling with 10,000 euros of aid for a total of 17,000 euros.
No longer spitting waste water into the river,
“we dreamed of it” , both for the
“practical”
and
“ecological”
sides
, says the entrepreneur, who emphasizes also benefiting from floating dams installed on the water to catch plastic waste, branches and leaves.
Their collection is in fact the responsibility of each occupant of the rings, which can prove difficult when the river level is low.
Géraud Boursin was able to spare himself the work: his brand new establishment,
“le Son de la Terre”
, already had two lifting pumps, under the toilets and the kitchen.
On the housing side, Renaud Brosse, with
“twenty years”
of life on barges under his belt, found
the work he carried out in spring 2023
“relatively simple”.
“It’s a good thing to be connected .
If we live on the water and are not at least concerned about ecology..."
, judges this 55-year-old man.
His neighbor, television host Christine Bravo, also welcomes a
“very good initiative”
because
“the Seine is a large part of the beauty of Paris”
.
Even if
“at the beginning, it annoyed a lot of neighbors”
, especially the owners who, like her and her husband,
“have to pay 20,000 euros”
.
One downside, however, she points out: the connection no longer works in the event of flooding, such as at the end of winter, when the water level reaches or exceeds the valve.
The barges then discharge water from showers, toilets and kitchens back into the river.
Of the 250 Parisian barges,
“there are still 20 barges to deal with”
between now and the Olympics, according to Christophe Noël du Payrat, satisfied with having covered
“most of the way”
.
The
“few recalcitrants”
must receive
“as a last resort”
a formal notice, then an
“official removal”
.