PARIS (Reuters) – Water pollution levels in the Seine are still well above the thresholds authorized for swimming, according to data published on Friday, a month before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games during which the river is due to host the events triathlon and marathon swimming.
Updated data published on the Paris city website show that concentrations of enterococci and E.coli bacteria remained well above permitted standards on Sunday at four testing points on the river.
At the Alexandre III bridge, the site planned for marathon swimming and the swimming portion of the triathlon, enterococci on Sunday exceeded a concentration of 1,000 colony-forming units (cfu)/100 ml, more than double the limit of 400 cfu/100 ml set by European legislation. The concentration of E.coli was almost four times the permitted limit.
Water pollution levels increase during periods of heavy rain, which in recent weeks has also brought the river’s flow to about six times its seasonal average, the Paris city hall service said on its website.
It is for this reason that the rehearsal for the opening ceremony scheduled for last Monday was canceled.
“What can be worrying is repeated and long rains, which would ultimately pose a problem for water quality,” Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of the Olympics, told Reuters. “We have absolutely unusual conditions compared to the period but the results are clearly improving,” he assured.
“The forecasts are not ideal but with the new structures in place such as the Austerlitz basin, they allow us to believe that at the end of July, the day after the opening ceremony, the quality of the water will allow us to make the trials.”
The French capital is working to clean up the Seine so people can swim in it again, as they did during the 1900 Paris Olympics. Last summer, a sewage problem led to the cancellation of an open-water swimming World Cup event.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo postponed her planned swim in the river ahead of the Olympics earlier this month.
(Written by Tassilo Hummel, French version Vincent Daheron, edited by Tangi Salaün)
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