INFO BFM PARIS ÎLE-DE-FRANCE. The Paris town hall published analyzes this Friday, June 28, indicating that the Seine was too polluted to be swimmable to date but that the results are improving with the return to a normal flow.
One month before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Seine is still too polluted according to analysis reports published this Friday, June 28 by Paris town hall. But these results concern the week of June 16 to 23 when the river flow was still abnormally high for the season.
The city of Paris wants to reassure BFM Paris Île-de-France about the samples taken since Monday.
“The results are better,” says Pierre Rabadan, the PS deputy mayor of Paris in charge of the Seine and the Olympic Games, to BFM Paris Île-de-France. “They are in line with the natural conditions that we were predicting,” he continues.
However, the city did not want to specify the levels of the two control parameters. The first concerns the concentration of Escherichia coli bacteria, which are those that cause gastroenteritis or stomach aches. And the second measures the concentration of intestinal enterococci.
The flow lost 200m3 in one week
One of the positive points for the elected official is the reduction in the flow of the Seine. To allow swimming, the flow of the Seine must be low, between 100 and 150m3 per second, while on June 23 it was at 666m3 per second. This Friday, it was only 400m3 per second: an encouraging result for the city. “The flow is strong, but the result is close to being suitable for swimming,” explains Pierre Rabadan to BFM Paris Île-de-France.
Between May and June, the Yonne, a tributary of the Seine, was on orange alert, which contributed to poor water quality. The large lakes upstream of Paris, which help regulate the flow of the Seine in the event of a drought, are “almost full” and “can no longer store water,” says Pierre Rabadan.
“We are confident that it will work out,” Pierre Rabadan reassured BFM Paris Île-de-France.
However, there remain “uncertainties” with the weather. If it is a brief storm, basins like that of Austerlitz can collect rainwater. On the other hand, the city will be more “worried” in the event of “continuous rain for a week” and which “cannot be controlled”, explains the deputy to the Seine. “The Seine is not a swimming pool. You cannot put a chlorine pebble”.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra also sounded reassuring on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers, saying that there was “no cause for concern at this time”. “We need slightly better weather in the coming days to complete this exercise,” she added.
Nicolas Dumas with Florent Bascoul
