The Olympic Games: Water from the Seine, a problem

The challenges facing the organizers of this year's edition of the Olympic Games are countless. New problems appear every week, which must be overcome. Last: Seine water and how safe it is. France's Minister of Sports, Amelie Oudea-Castera, declared herself confident in "the goal of reducing the bacteriological pollution of the Seine by 75 percent", after the recent publication of an alarming study on the quality of the river's waters, in which more Olympic trials this summer. "We trust the prefect's action plan, a very ambitious plan that we have been working on for three years," said the minister. "Let's not measure what cannot be measured ahead of time. We are confident in our ability to achieve the goal we set ourselves, to reduce the bacteriological pollution in the Seine by 75 percent", added Amelie Oudea-Castera. Almost a hundred days before the Olympic Games in Paris, the NGO Surfrider Foundation warned about the "alarming" state of the water quality of the river Seine, where several Olympic trials will be held, after carrying out a sampling campaign of samples for six months, informs AFP. Of the 14 samples analyzed between September 2023 and the end of March 2024, from the areas of the Alexandre-III and Alma bridges, the headquarters of the future triathlon and open water swimming trials, 13 presented "concentrations above the pollution limit" recommended for bathing. According to the 2006 European rules for bathing and the scales of the swimming and triathlon federations, the concentrations of faecal contamination bacteria, Escherichia coli and enterococci, must not exceed 1,000 colony forming units (cfu)/100 ml in E coli and 400 cfu/100 ml in enterococci. Above this threshold, the water is not suitable for bathing. The tests carried out by Surfrider, in partnership with the Water laboratory in Paris, showed E.coli concentrations of over 2,000 cfu/100 ml and 500 cfu/100 ml for enterococci. In addition, the triathlon (July 30 and 31, August 5) and open water swimming events (August 8 and 9) are endangered by heavy rainfall, which would degrade the water of the Seine, as a result of the mixing of waste water with rainwater .