A few days before the Paris Games, Mayor Anne Hidalgo is due to dive into the waters of the Seine on Wednesday morning. The end of a long saga that has become, over the months, a political issue. The organisers of the Olympic Games had made the river the star of these Games, and its decontamination one of the pillars of their candidacy.
Published on: 07/17/2024 – 08:14Modified on: 07/17/2024 – 08:16
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She took diving lessons for the occasion: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will keep her promise to swim in the Seine nine days before the Olympic Games, on Wednesday July 17, in the company of the president of the organizing committee (Cojo) Tony Estanguet.
Sunny weather, 20°C water, bacteria and a decreasing flow rate. The conditions are finally right for the historic dive of three key figures of the Olympic Games.
A stone’s throw from the Hôtel de Ville, where the Marie arm describes a curve between the right bank and the Île Saint-Louis, the mayor of the host city, the president of the Cojo and the prefect of Île-de-France, Marc Guillaume, are due to jump into the water at 10 a.m., followed by a procession of swimmers invited for the occasion.
They will not be accompanied by President Emmanuel Macron, who had promised at the end of February that he would also swim, without specifying the date.
The French Minister of Sports and Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, got ahead of them by taking a secret swim in the Seine on Saturday morning.
An hour after the swimming time was announced, “more than 150” journalists had requested accreditation, proof of the interest generated, the City Hall told AFP.
Although from the outside this race for image may seem funny, the subject is crucial for the organisers of the Olympic Games, who have made the river the star of these Games, and its decontamination one of the pillars of their candidacy.
The moment of truth
The State and local authorities of the Paris region have injected 1.4 billion euros since 2016 to make the Seine and its main tributary, the Marne, swimmable.
Modernization of sewage treatment plants, connection of barges to the sewer system, collection of plastic waste… The plan also gave rise to five major works, including a rainwater and wastewater retention basin near the Gare d’Austerlitz, a veritable underground cathedral dug in the heart of Paris.
These works “will make it possible to reduce to less than two days after the last rain the period during which the tests cannot be held in the Seine”, the prefecture stated in March. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
The moment of truth is approaching for the organizers: after the opening ceremony, the triathlon (July 30 and 31, August 5), marathon swimming (August 8 and 9) and paratriathlon (September 1 and 2) events must be held in the Seine.
However, in August 2023, rehearsals for these disciplines turned into a nightmare for the organizers, who were forced to cancel several days of test events due to water that was unsuitable for swimming.
In the event of heavy rainfall, untreated water may be discharged into the river, a phenomenon that the retention structures inaugurated just before the Games are intended to prevent.
Plan B consists of postponing the events by a few days, while Plan C aims to move the marathon swimming to Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne).
Also read: Swimming in the Seine for the Olympic Games: an Olympic challenge!
Latest positive results
Over the last two weeks, despite the Seine’s flow rate remaining high (around 400 m3/second on Tuesday), which is detrimental to water quality, the town hall and regional prefecture have announced generally positive bacteriological results, after several rounds of poor analyses in June due to the rain.
According to the last two samples taken on June 26 and July 4 by the NGO Surfrider on the Olympic course, the content of E.Coli and enterococci, the two fecal bacteria measured to authorize or not swimming, was in accordance with the standards of the international federations of the sports concerned.
“The water is currently safe for swimming,” Marc Valmassoni, water and health coordinator at Surfrider, told AFP, although he regretted that the chemical content was not being taken into account by the authorities.
Just in time for Anne Hidalgo, who took diving lessons for this swim announced for June 23, then postponed due to bad weather and the legislative elections.
In addition to the promise to swim, which her illustrious predecessor Jacques Chirac, then mayor of the capital, did not keep in 1990, the mayor sees one of her commitments taking shape here: on the Marie arm, as at Bercy and on the Grenelle arm, all Parisians must be allowed to swim from the summer of 2025.
With AFP
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