the Seine will still not be swimmable at the beginning of July, according to the prefect of Île-de-France

The Seine will still not be swimmable at the beginning of July, less than a month before the start of the Olympic Games (July 26 – August 11) and the events in the Seine planned there, warned the prefect of Île-de-France Marc Guillaume on Wednesday.

“The Seine will not be swimmable in a few days”said on - the senior official, highlighting “the flow of the Seine that we have, this morning still more than 480 m3/second”. This high flow, caused by precipitation at the end of a rainy spring, led to the postponement of a rehearsal of the opening ceremony, which was scheduled for Monday. It then rose to 650 m3/second.

Unfavorable weather conditions

“We have not had weather conditions, for six months, which are very classic”recalled Marc Guillaume, emphasizing that the Swimming Plan carried out for almost a decade by the State and the Ile-de-France communities, with 1.4 billion euros of investment to make the Seine and the Marne swimmable, “is not enough if the weather is fall or winter weather”.

For her part, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who postponed her historic dive into the Seine due to bad weather and early legislative elections, planned to swim the week of July 15 “or the week after”, that of the opening ceremony. In an interview with West France Wednesday, she said to herself “very confident” on the arrival of favorable weather in time for the Olympics.

Suspense remains over the holding of the Olympic events since the «test-events» from August 2023 which had to be largely cancelled due to insufficient water quality.

Plan B consists of postponing the tests for a few days, but not changing location.

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