Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo finally swam in the Seine on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to try to convince doubters that its waters will be clean enough to hold Olympic swimming events.
Hidalgo took the plunge around 10am on a glorious summer’s day in Paris — near the imposing-looking City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral — with visitors crowding on nearby bridges to catch a glimpse of her after several postponements due to heavy rain and doubts about water quality.
Hidalgo, clad in a wetsuit and goggles, was joined in the Seine by Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics Organising Committee, among others. At first, she paddled and then swam front crawl with her face in the water.
“We have worked very, very hard and then you go down into the water and it seems natural,” Hidalgo said after the swim. “The water is very, very good, a little bit cool.”
The triathlon and marathon swimming legs of the Olympics, which run from July 26 to August 11, are due to be held in the Seine.
In early June, daily water quality tests had indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. According to European standards, the safe limit for E. coli is 900 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100 millilitres while the threshold for Enterococcus is 330 cfu/100ml.
According to the most recent July 12 Seine water quality bulletin, based on the Eau de Paris water analysis, the water quality would be suitable for swimming in six out of seven days at the Olympics swimming sites.
Since 2015, organisers have invested heavily — $1.5 billion — to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river in the years after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Decisions on whether to run Olympics events will be taken the night before, and early that same morning, with a technical committee, including athletes, international
federation, regional authorities and Meteo France making the call.
“The first athletes are arriving tomorrow (Thursday), and so this is a very important message that, finally, the Seine is swimmable, and the triathlon and swimming events can be held here,” Estanguet said.
Paris has been working on cleaning up the Seine so that people can swim in it again, as was the case during the 1900 Paris Olympics. Former Paris mayor Jacques Chirac in 1988 promised he would swim in the Seine “in the presence of witnesses”, but his plunge never materialised.
The city has built a huge storage basin capable of holding 46,000 cubic metres of waste water before it flows through a tunnel to a treatment plant. When the water meets the required health criteria, it will then be poured into the Seine.
If the river is not deemed to be suitable, organisers have contingency plans: the marathon swimming event will take place at Vaires-sur-Marne, where the rowing and canoeing events are held, and the triathlon will be turned into a duathlon.
Jenn Fluet, a 21-year-old tourist visiting from New York, said Hidalgo was brave. Asked if she would follow suit, Fluet said: “Hell no! It’s dirty.”
Quentin Mazars, a 33-year-old swimming club member who joined Hidalgo in the Seine, said he “was careful not to swallow any water”.
Pierre Suzeau, a 66-year-old member of an outdoor swimming group, emerged from his dip energised: “We are very happy to finally see swimming in an urban environment become a reality. We hope the Seine and the canals will soon all be swimmable.”
Quality check
Rainfall: More rain more pollution runoff
UV index: “The higher the UV index, the faster the bacteria die”
Temperature: The higher the temperature, the faster the bacteria dies.
“Whether the temperature of the water is 16°C, or above 22°C like it usually is in the summer, it makes a significant difference”
The flow of the river: The faster the water flows the higher the pollution
Written with inputs from Reuters & AP/PTI
