the Seine is still too polluted one month before the opening of the Games, according to Paris town hall

One month before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Seine is still too polluted. This is what the analysis reports from last week, published on Friday, June 28 by the Paris city hall, indicate. “Water quality remains degraded due to an unfavorable hydrological context: rain, high flow, low sunshine, temperatures below seasonal standards and pollution from upstream”said the town hall.

“We expect things to improve this week given the weather”commented the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region to AFP. Regional prefect Marc Guillaume had warned that the river would not be swimmable at the beginning of July due to the flow of the river. “To date, the conditions are not right for us to be able to swim in the Seine”he had lamented.

The concentration of the two faecal bacteria on which the regulations for authorising swimming are based shows values ​​that have risen sharply compared to the first two weeks of June, with very high peaks between 18 and 20 June. These poor results, due to the weather, have reinforced doubts about the proper holding of the Olympic events in the river (triathlon and open water swimming) but also about the opening ceremony, which also depends on a correct flow of the river. Plan B consists of postponing the events by a few days, but not changing the venue.