At the beginning of the 90s, Jacques Chirac promised to swim in the Seine. If the promise was never kept due to the water being much too dirty, his successor, Emmanuel Macron, ensures that he will swim in the Parisian river before the Paris 2024 Olympics. Several swimming events must take place in the Seine this summer (swimming, marathon, triathlon and paratriathlon editor’s note).
For the moment, recent analyzes show that the water is still too polluted to be able to swim in it. But the State is working hard to keep this promise with a swimming plan worth nearly 1.4 billion euros which notably includes the construction of a rainwater depollution station in Champigny-sur-Marne.
Up to 700 liters per second of rainwater cleaned
To keep its promise to reduce the bacteriological pollution of the Seine by 75% for the Olympic Games, the State therefore built this rainwater depollution station. A major project whose work began in the fall of 2020 and which will clean up to 700 liters per second of rainwater from the sector, loaded with waste and bacteria that it carries in its runoff, before discharging it into the the Marne.
A rainwater storage basin, located in the capital in Austerlitz, will also be put into service next month. It will have a capacity of 50,000 m², the equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming pools. This infrastructure will prevent discharge of wastewater into the Seine in the event of heavy rain.
“We will do everything to ensure that there is an extraordinary spectacle on the Seine,” announces Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on Europe 1
Other measures are being taken to make it possible to realize the organizers’ dream of seeing Olympic events on the Seine this summer, assured last Saturday on Europe 1, in the studio of the legends of Jacques Vendroux, Amélie Oudea-Castera: “We are in “finishing all the connection of barges, boats to the sewer system, plus all the mechanics of disinfection of the water leaving the treatment plants” indicated the Minister of Sports.
Enthusiastic, she assured that the promise would be kept: “There will be several measuring points for the water quality of the Seine, 8 today and 35 from June! So it’s a huge industrial project and we will do everything to be ready for an extraordinary show.”
Despite these announcements, the Olympic open water swimming champion remains concerned about the quality of the water in the Parisian river, as she indicated during an interview with AFP after a competition on Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro, last month. The Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha invites the organizers to think about a Plan B for the events in the Seine.