After France is in an “attack emergency”, athletes complain that their accommodation does not have air conditioning in the middle of the Parisian summer and students do not want their apartments to be vacated to accommodate firefighters and security personnel, the pollution of the Seine
It is the latest drama
in the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games. The waters of the river
are in an “alarming” state
, warns an NGO.
Not only has President Emmanuel Macron promised to bathe with Mayor Anne Hidalgo there, but
several events will be held there
. Since the opening ceremony in July with more than 170 boats and 280,000 guests but swimming sports activities for the Olympic competition.
Water with fecal matter
Almost 100 days before the Paris Olympic Games
, the NGO Surfrider Foundation
warned on Monday of the "alarming" state of the waters after having carried out a sampling campaign
for six months.
The Seine River and the Eiffel Towers, two emblems of Paris. Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
They measured in the heart of Paris, in front of the great bridges that cross the Seine. Of the 14 measurements that the association carried out between the end of September 2023 and the end of March 2024 under the Alexandre-III and Alma bridges, venues for future triathlon and open water swimming events, 13 turned out to be “above or even very , well above the recommended thresholds for swimming.”
Regarding the 2006 European “swimming” directive and the barometers of the swimming and triathlon federations
, the concentrations of two bacteria indicative of fecal contamination
, Escherichia coli and enterococci, must not exceed 1,000 colony-forming units (cfu)/ 100 ml in Ecoli and 400 cfu/100 ml in enterococci. Beyond that, the water is considered unsuitable for swimming.
Not suitable for swimming
The analyzes carried out by Surfrider, in collaboration with the Eau de Paris laboratory (the same as the Paris city hall) and Analy-Co, “were carried out randomly and with a predefined schedule to overcome climatic conditions (rain, sun, floods ), show
concentrations of E. coli regularly above 2000 cfu/100 ml
(high of 7250 under the Alma Bridge on February 7, 2024) and
500 cfu/100 ml for enterococci
(high of 1190 on February 7) .
The Bridge of Arts. Down with homeless people's tents. Photo: Reuters
The period analyzed is not part of the period planned for swimming in the Seine, which will be reserved for the summer months.
However, other analyzes sent to the AFP agency at the beginning of 2024 by the Paris city council had already shown that, between June and September 2023, none of the 14 Parisian water sampling points had reached a level of quality sufficient with with respect to European directives.
Risk for athletes
Given these “alarming” results, Surfrider expresses its “growing concern about the quality of the waters of the Seine.” He points out the “risks” for athletes, and furthermore,
for residents of the Ile-de-France region, “of living next to contaminated waters
. ”
Given the "lack of visibility" and communication on the part of the authorities, the association asks, in an open letter,
for accessibility to the event venues "before and during"
the entire duration of the Games to be able to continue making their own decisions there. samples.
The triathlon events, which will take place on July 30 and 31 and August 5 and the open water swimming, now called marathon swimming, on August 8 and 9, remain particularly threatened by heavy rainfall, which would degrade the water from the Seine, by pouring wastewater into its bed mixed with rainwater.
A cyclist rides on the flooded banks of the Seine. Photo: EFE
In early August 2023, the open water swimming test dress rehearsal had to be canceled due to significantly exceeding water quality thresholds.