INFO BFM PARIS ÎLE-DE-FRANCE. The Paris town hall published analyzes this Friday, June 28, indicating that the Seine was too polluted to be swimmable to date but that the results are improving with the return to normal flow.
With one month to go until the start of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the Seine is still too polluted according to the analysis results published this Friday, June 28 by the Paris City Hall. But these results concern the week of June 16 to 23, when the flow of the river was still abnormally high for the season.
The city of Paris wants to reassure BFM Paris Île-de-France about the samples taken since Monday.
“The results are better,” says Pierre Rabadan, the PS deputy to the mayor of Paris in charge of the Seine and the JOP at BFM Paris Île-de-France. “They are consistent with the natural conditions that we expected,” he continues.
On the other hand, the city did not want to specify the levels of the two control parameters. The first concerns the concentration of Escherichia coli bacteria, these are the ones which cause gastroenteritis or stomach aches in particular. And the second measures the concentration of intestinal enterococci.
The flow lost 200m3 in one week
One of the positive points for the elected official is the reduction in the flow of the Seine. To allow swimming, the flow of the Seine must be low, between 100 and 150m3 per second, while on June 23 it was at 666m3 per second. This Friday, it was only 400m3 per second: an encouraging result for the city. “The flow is strong, but the result is close to being suitable for swimming,” explains Pierre Rabadan to BFM Paris Île-de-France.
Between May and June, the Yonne, a tributary of the Seine, was on orange alert, which contributed to poor water quality. The large lakes upstream of Paris, which help regulate the flow of the Seine in the event of a drought, are “almost full” and “can no longer store water,” says Pierre Rabadan.
“We are confident that it will work,” Pierre Rabadan reassures BFM Paris Île-de-France.
However, there remain “uncertainties” with the weather. If it is a brief storm, basins like that of Austerlitz can collect rainwater. On the other hand, the city will be more “worried” in the event of “continuous rain for a week” and which “cannot be controlled”, explains the deputy to the Seine. “The Seine is not a swimming pool. You cannot put a chlorine pebble”.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was also reassuring this Wednesday on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers, saying that there was “no concern to date”. “We need a little better weather in the days to come to complete this exercise,” she added.
Nicolas Dumas with Florent Bascoul
