Marc Guillaume explains that the poor results of the analyzes obtained by an NGO are “normal” because the readings were carried out outside the swimming period.
Less than three months before the start of the Paris Olympic Games, the prefect of the city and the Île-de-France region assures this Wednesday, May 8 on TF1 that he has “results” which will allow the swimming events to take place triathlon in the Seine.
“When France obtained the Olympic Games with this Paris file, the president of the republic, the mayor of Paris, the president of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games were committed to ensuring that these triathlon events would take place in the Seine ” first recalls Marc Guillaume. “We have worked enormously for four years to clean up the Seine (…) today we have results which will allow us to hold the swimming events this summer in the Seine”.
“We can swim in the Seine”
However, the NGO Surfrider Foundation warned at the beginning of April about the “alarming” state of the waters of the Seine, after carrying out a six-month sampling campaign. Of the 14 measurements taken between September 2023 and March 2024, 13 were found to be “above, or even very significantly above” the thresholds recommended for swimming.
Marc Guillaume assures that it is “normal” to obtain these results when the samples are taken outside the swimming period, that is to say when the temperatures are low and that “water treatment units are not in operation. function”.
“Last summer, we had already had good results, we had episodes of rain, but next summer, the coming summer, we will be able to swim in the Seine for these tests” affirms the prefect.
These same arguments were also put forward by the Paris town hall after the diffusion of the Surfrider Foundation study. She was surprised “at the temporality of such a study, the samples of which were taken outside the summer season” and recalled that “the Seine is in no way intended to welcome swimmers from mid-September to June, including for security reasons.”
Beyond the Olympic events, Marc Guillaume also assures this Wednesday that it will be possible to swim in the swimming areas of the Seine from the summer of 2025.
