In Paris, Two Weeks Before Olympics, Seine River Cleared for the Opening Ceremony and Swimming
The Paris City Hall assures that the Seine River, which will host the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and some of the competitions, has become mostly suitable for swimming.
This was reported by Le Figaro.
Since June, the Paris City Hall and the prefecture have been reporting weekly on the water quality in the river amid concerns about whether it will be safe to hold the Olympic Games programme as planned.
On Friday, Pierre Rabadan, the mayor's office representative in charge of the Olympics, said that over the past 12 days, the water quality in the Seine has met the required standards for 10-11 days.
"I can't say we are completely calm, given the weather forecasts, but there is no concern about the ability to hold the competition on the date," he said.
In June, the results of the water analysis were often alarming, but since the beginning of July, the first encouraging results have begun to appear.
The Seine is scheduled to host the opening ceremony and competitions in three disciplines: triathlon on 30-31 July and 5 August, marathon swimming on 8-9 August and paratriathlon on 1-2 September.
In the event of very heavy rainfall, a lot of sewage water with pollutants could enter the river and spoil the plans. The city has prepared special technical safeguards for this. If they don't save the day, Plan B is to postpone the race for a few days. As a last resort, the marathon swim will be held in the municipality of Ver-sur-Marne, east of Paris, where there is appropriate infrastructure.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, promised to show by her own example that she believes it is safe to hold the competition on the Seine and is going to swim in the river next week, tentatively on 17 July.
French President Emmanuel Macron also promised to swim in the Seine.
As reported by The Gaze, Macron personally assured that the water in the Seine River in Paris would be clean enough to host the swimming competitions at the 2024 Olympic Games in May. "The key step to making the Seine swimmable is that the wastewater treatment plant is ready... The water in the Seine will be cool but clean. I can confirm this," he said.