Will the Seine be swimmable for the Olympics? • FRANCE 24 English

Will the Seine be swimmable for the Olympics? • FRANCE 24 English

now with just 3 months to go until the
Summer Olympics here in Paris many are
wondering if the sen River will really
be clean enough for the Olympians to
swim in well one key element is a
so-called storm waterer system it was
inaugurated today to try and uh make
sure the s’s a little cleaner and
Solange Mah is here to tell us why this
underground structure Solange could be
the key to ensuring the events in the
sen do go ahead this summer so just tell
us first of all what is a storm War
system well it’s essentially a huge tank
to protect uh against sewage overflow uh
in the case that there is too much rain
but Engineers uh on this project excuse
me I’ve lost my earring uh have more
poetic terms for it such as an
underground Cathedral or a forest of 80
meter tall concrete pillars work on uh
this one was inaugurated today in
central Paris it began in 2021 and cost
some 90 million euros it can hold around
50,000 M cubes of rainwater and sewage
and that is the equivalent of some 20
Olympic swimming pools needless to say
the engineers are pretty proud of
it the mixture of waste water and rain
water during intense rainfall will come
through this pipe it will fill the Basin
to its full capacity and when the rain
is over the Basin is emptied by a
pumping system and much smaller pipes
which will empty into the
sewer now the Basin is actually quite
emblematic because it is below Central
Paris near the galdo leits in the 5th
now the Paris May mayor’s office and
local officials are enthusiastic about
it because they see it as a sort of
safety net of sorts in case it rains too
much just before the Olympic events well
explain that to us then why are
officials worried that it might rain a
lot well Paras system dates back to the
19th century and it actually mixes
rainwater with sewage and waste from
region toilets that water is then sent
to filtration plants but if it rains too
much and the system goes in an overflow
mode then that dirty surge goes into the
sen river through 44 different spillways
or release areas now this is one of the
major reasons that the sen is dirty or
at least is too dirty at times to hold
competitions in like last August when
the trial runs of events were cancelled
because there was too much bacteria in
the water so with this huge concrete
tank and other projects that are similar
to it Paris hopes to buy more time by
holding that excess water and sewage
back but the system is not infallible if
there is a massive storm these tanks can
overflow as
well this gives us the option to
eventually have a few days of wiggle
room till the sun and dry weather comes
out again it allows us to not have to
cancel and it is this guarantee That’s
essential
Anna Delo the mayor of Paris speaking
there Salange and tell us was this
project built just for the Olympics well
even if the pollution of the sen has
long been an issue Jac shiak uh he
actually said he wanted a swimmable sen
in 1990 it was often seen as sort of a
pipe dream many people nowadays too
think of it as a pipe dream so the
Olympics definitely uh gave this project
a Kus as we say in French or a helping
hand a swimable send was actually one of
the mayor’s pillars uh uh in her bid for
the Olympics ano has even vowed to swim
in the sen in the month of June she also
plans to open three areas to the public
uh by the summer of 2025 and some 20
other uh projects in the suburbs are
also in the works the state has invested
some 1.4 billion euros to make the sen
and the marn rivers cleaner and
swimmable again with massive sistems
modernized treatment plants underwater
tunnels control centers as well but
currently we really are not there yet in
2023 none of the 14 test sites met the
bacterial criteria that is set by the EU
EU and it’s not just because of sewage
there are also pesticide uses from farms
Upstream the pollution from all of the
freight traffic that passes through
these rivers and of course people
dumping their trash and the that is the
downside but there is an upside uh and
that is there is a real push uh in Paris
to get the river back to a more pristine
state it actually only became too
dangerous to swim in in the 1960s
swimming was outlaw in 1923 but that was
mostly to keep swimmers from disturbing
the shipping traffic so today there is
this real will to reclaim the sen as a
uh as it once was a place where uh
people could reflect swim enjoy a hot
day and be in the water at the same time

Paris inaugurated a huge, underground cistern today. We dive into why the Paris mayor’s office has put its hopes behind this concrete basin to keep sewage out of the river.
#Paris #Seine #Olympics

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X (Twitter): https://f24.my/Xen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen