As the Paris Olympics approach, it is unclear if the River Seine will be clean enough for athletes to use.
The sporting extravaganza, set to begin on July 26, may not feature events in the river due to high levels of E Coli bacteria in the water, which is often linked to fecal bacteria.
Using the 2024 Games as a springboard, Paris invested €1.4 billion in building infrastructure to catch more stormwater when it rains — the same water that contains bacteria-laden waste liquid that enters the river during heavy downpours and 2024 has been a particularly wet year.
The city’s efforts, though, seem to have fallen short ahead of the start of the Olympics.
Recent testing of the water showed it was still unsafe and polluted on most days, potentially creating health problems for athletes in triathlon and marathon Olympic swimming events due to to take place in the Seine.
Ingesting water contaminated with E. coli and enterococci bacteria can lead to serious health issues, including diarrhoea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia and sepsis. The latest tests have revealed unsafe levels of these fecal-related bacteria in the Seine for three consecutive weeks.
Among the financial investments by Paris was the construction of a huge underground water-storage basin designed to catch excess rainwater and keep it from entering the Seine.
Such efforts do not appear to be enough to have got rid of all the E coli bacteria and the levels still exceed the norms that the World Triathlon Federation has determined as safe for competitions by tenfold.
As the sun’s ultraviolet rays kill bacteria like E coli in water, some hope there will be enough sunlight over the next two weeks to mean competition could go ahead as planned.
Critics say there are other problems to take into account. Lionel Cheylus, representing the environmental non-profit Surfrider Europe, conducted separate water tests and said there were concerns about other, unmonitored contaminants.
“European regulations only mandate testing for these two bacteria,” he told USA Today earlier in July. “They don’t address pharmaceutical, industrial, or chemical pollution. So when authorities declare water ‘swimmable’, they’re only confirming the absence of these specific bacteria, not overall water quality.”
That did not stop politicians from claiming the water was perfectly safe.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo assured France Inter radio listeners on July 10: “I will personally swim in the Seine next week. We are confident that the water will be adequately treated and safe by then.”
On July 13, French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a dip in the river in a bid to assure all of its cleanliness.
“Promise kept!,” she posted afterwards on X, together with some relevant images.
Many French citizens were unimpressed and under the post warned her to get ready to go to hospital or take some medicine against gastrointestinal diseases and diarrhoea.
One poster commented that it reminded him of Bhagwant Mann, an Indian minister who in 2022 drank from the River Ganges to make a point about its cleanliness and needed urgent medical aid shortly after.
A less glamorous clip of Oudéa-Castéra entering the water was also shared widely online.
Comment peut-on sérieusement atteindre un tel niveau dans le ridicule ?
Je ne sais pas.
La ministre Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, dans la Seine, apparemment le sait ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fiLrjJlrHy
— Eric Morillot (@EricMorillot) July 13, 2024
