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00:00 It's a scene dating back to 1935 that the city of Paris has promised to make a new reality.
00:08 Olympic athletes will be leading the plunge at the 2024 Games when several events are
00:13 set to be held in the waters of the Seine.
00:15 "We will have a marathon swimming and triathlon for the Olympics and the Paralympics Games
00:21 so in the Seine.
00:22 It's been a project for decades and that's for me a fantastic demonstration of the power
00:29 of the Games."
00:31 To reach their goal, officials have been targeting riverside homes and boats that have been dumping
00:35 their waste water, requiring them to hook up to the sewage network.
00:39 They've also invested more than half a billion euros in infrastructure.
00:43 "We have a storage facility that can take up to about 50,000 cubic meters of water,
00:49 equivalent to 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and that will allow us to contain the rainwater
00:54 to prevent the sewers from overflowing.
00:56 And then the water that is stored here will be progressively re-treated once the rain
01:01 stops to avoid having the Seine polluted."
01:05 The city says their efforts are already paying off, with the appearance of more species of
01:09 fish and the water quality already measuring good in some areas, even if it doesn't look
01:15 crystal clear.
01:16 "Frankly, if I took a measurement and I saw that it's a good measurement, I would jump
01:21 in and swim right away."
01:23 With the mindset, officials hope all Parisians will adopt.
01:27 The city is already studying five locations for swimming on the Seine, and is hoping to
01:31 open them to the public a year after the Games in 2025.