One less before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Seine is still too polluted according to the analysis reports published this Friday, June 28 by the Paris town hall for the week of June 16 to 23.
The Seine is still too polluted, according to the analysis reports published this Friday, June 28 by the Paris city hall for the week of June 16 to 23. This new data is worrying now less than a month before the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The results are beyond the standards required for the Olympic events to take place there. “The quality of the water remains degraded due to an unfavorable hydrological context: rain, high flow, little sunshine, temperatures below seasonal standards and pollution from upstream,” the town hall said. .
Doubts reinforced
These poor results, due to the weather, have reinforced doubts about the proper holding of the Olympic events in the river (triathlon and open water swimming) but also about the opening ceremony which also depends on a correct flow of the river.
In the event of heavy rainfall, untreated water – a mixture of rain and waste water – can be discharged into the river, a phenomenon that retention structures inaugurated just before the Games are intended to prevent.
Too high a flow
On -, the prefect of Île-de-France Marc Guillaume declared this Wednesday, June 26, that the Seine “will not be swimmable in a few days”. The reason is the flow of the river.
This flow, which has increased sharply over the past month, has been up to six times greater than usual; it was 666 cubic metres per second on Sunday 23 June, whereas it is normally 100 to 150 cubic metres at this time. It is because of this excessive flow that the rehearsal of the opening ceremony scheduled for Monday was postponed.
“We will see more clearly in mid-July” for Estanguet
The president of the organizing committee for the Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet, estimated this Wednesday, June 26 on France Inter that we will “see more clearly in mid-July” on the quality of the water in the Seine, i.e. two weeks before the opening of the Olympics.
The very rainy weather has thwarted preparations for the Olympics for a month. “We were not spared by the weather conditions,” said the three-time Olympic champion one month before the opening ceremony on the Seine. “It seems to be improving a little, we will see more clearly in mid-July,” he said.
Two fecal bacteria on the rise
The concentration of the two faecal bacteria on which the regulations for authorising bathing are based showed sharply higher values compared to the first two weeks of June, with very high peaks between 18 and 20 June.
Plan B is to postpone the tests by a few days, but not to change the venue.
