Organisers of a training session before the start of the Open Water Swimming World Cup have decided to cancel the swims because of pollution in the Seine, The Times reports. Authorities in Paris said they were making progress in efforts to clean up the river for the 2024 Olympics, but after heavy rains, sewers overflowed and rainwater entered the river.
Paris has failed to clean up the Seine for the 2024 Olympics – the river was deemed too dirty and unsuitable for training before the start of the Open Water Swimming World Cup, The Times reports.
As the publication notes, the Swimming World Cup is generally regarded as a trial swim before the Olympics. However, the training before the competition was decided to be cancelled due to sewage pollution in the Seine.
The last time a competition was held in the Seine was in 1900, when Paris hosted the Olympic Games for the first time. However, 23 years later, due to increased pollution, authorities banned swimming in the river. After Paris won the right to host the 2024 Olympics, city authorities decided to spend €1.4bn on work to restore a safe river for swimming.
According to Pierre-Antoine Molina, a spokesman for the capital’s authorities, the work is proceeding according to plan. Between 6 June and 18 July, 42 tests were carried out, which showed an improvement in water quality. Molina cited this summer’s “exceptional weather” as the reason for the cancellation. “From 20 July to 2 August, Paris received 104 millimetres of rainfall,” the official complained, pointing out that this was four times more than the average for the same period over the past 20 years.
As a result, the sewerage system overflowed and wastewater flowed into the Seine. This led to E. coli and enterococci bacteria levels exceeding safe levels. “When it rains heavily, the sewage becomes too much for the network and we have to dump some of it into the Seine,” Molina explained.
The authorities insist they will solve the problem before the Olympics, notably by building an underground tank the size of 20 Olympic swimming pools at a cost of €80m. The tank will prevent rainwater from entering the city’s sewer system.
However, as The Times notes, Parisians do not share the optimism of the authorities. Back in 1990, Jacques Chirac, who was then mayor of Paris, promised that it would be safe to swim in the Seine within three years. The current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, claims that this will be possible by 2025.
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