the essential
The latest analyzes of the Seine show that the river is not in a condition to be used for the events of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The capital has been subject to an unfavorable hydrological context.
The Seine was still polluted one month before the opening of the Olympic Games, according to the analysis reports published this Friday, June 28 by the Paris town hall for the week of June 16 to 23, beyond the standards required for it to be Olympic events 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. .
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“We expect things to improve this week given the weather,” commented the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region. Regional prefect Marc Guillaume had warned that the river would not be swimmable at the beginning of July due to the flow of the river.
Too high a flow rate
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. The flow of the river, which has increased sharply over the past month, was 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.
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These poor results, due to the weather, have reinforced doubts about the success of the Olympic events in the river (triathlon and open water swimming) but also about the opening ceremony which is also dependent on a correct flow of the river. In the event of intense precipitation, untreated water – a mixture of rain and wastewater – can be released into the river, a phenomenon that retention works inaugurated just before the Games are intended to prevent. Plan B consists of postponing the tests for a few days, but not changing location.
