Anne Hidalgo can get pimples. Less than a month before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Seine was still polluted according to the latest analysis reports published this Friday by the Paris city hall for the week of June 16 to 23. A level beyond the standards required for the Olympic events to take place there.
“Water quality remains degraded due to an unfavorable hydrological context: rain, high flow, low sunshine, temperatures below seasonal standards and pollution from upstream,” the town hall said. .
The E.Coli bacteria still very present
To summarize, the content of Escherichia coli and enterococci must not exceed 1,000 and 400 colony forming units (CFU)/100 ml respectively for the tests to be authorized.
While E.Coli concentrations were generally between 1,000 and 5,000 CFU/100 ml the first half of June, they fluctuated between 2,000 and 10,000 (with a peak at 13,000 at the start of the third week), between 2,000 and 6,000 in weekend.
As for enterococci, with values generally between 100 and 500 CFU/100 ml in the first half of June, they rose above the 1,000 or even 2,000 mark for several days.
A huge investment… that still hasn’t paid off
A true symbol of these Olympic Games, the Seine must host, in addition to the opening ceremony, several swimming events. The question of water quality remains a central point and concern for the authorities.
If the prefect of Île-de-France, Marc Guillaume, had already warned at the start of the week that the river “will not be swimmable” at the beginning of July, the situation is worrying given the lack of assurance of swimmability of the Seine at the time of the tests.
For almost a year now, several test events have been cancelled despite the colossal resources invested (1.4 billion euros) and the commissioning of the Austerlitz rainwater retention basin.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who promised to swim in the river before the Olympics, has already pushed back the deadline twice (the second time being more related to the legislative elections than to the quality of the water). She recently announced that the swim would take place between July 14 and the opening ceremony.
