Olympic cleanup: Swimming in the Seine

FRANCE 24 English

Swimming in the Seine has long been forbidden but taking a dip in the iconic river could soon become a reality. Just in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Paris has embarked on its most ambitious bid yet to clean up one the world’s busiest waterways. The Seine to take center stage in Olympic eventsAs part of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, several competitions will take place along the river Seine, setting off from the Alexander III Bridge, including the triathlon, as well as the mixed relay and open water swimming competitions.“It's not madness, it's an ambitious goal,” said Pierre Rabadan, Paris’s deputy mayor in charge of sports. The city is confident it can reach safe water levels in time, arguing the quality has already improved.&#160;Tests were carried out last summer at locations that will be hosting Olympic events over a period of 15 days, the same duration of the Games. According to authorities, over 92 percent of the time, results showed water quality standards either satisfactory or excellent.“International safety and health requirements will be met here in Paris and the water quality will be just fine,” Rabadan added.&#160;It is certainly an ambitious goal, and one that comes with a steep price tag: €1.4 billion over eight to 10 years.“Without the games, we probably wouldn't have made it. Or maybe in 30 or 40 years we could have achieved what we have done in eight to 10 years.”Waste and fecal bacteria&#160;Even though Paris has made the Seine its leading star in the upcoming Olympics, not many people would actually brave its murky waters just yet. The iconic river has built a filthy reputation as a dump yard for all sorts of trash: plastic, cigarette butts and even electric scooters and bicycles. Some 350 tonnes o... Go on reading on our web site. Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Swimming in the Seine has long been forbidden, but taking a dip in the iconic river could

00:16 soon become a reality.

00:19 Just in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Paris has embarked on its most ambitious bid

00:25 yet to clean up one of the world's busiest waterways.

00:30 We have not been able to swim in the Seine since 1923.

00:38 We have been working for several years to improve the quality of the water to allow

00:46 us to swim again.

00:47 As part of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, there will be several events in the

00:56 Seine.

00:57 The first will be at the foot of the Alexandre III bridge, the triathlon men, women and mixed

01:02 relay.

01:03 The paratriathlon will also be held during the Olympic Games and free-swimming.

01:08 It is a 10-kilometer event that will be in a loop.

01:10 It's not crazy, it's an ambition.

01:15 First, the Games have allowed us to accelerate a certain amount of investment that will

01:20 allow us to improve the quality of the Seine and to be able to swim again for the

01:25 next few years.

01:26 First, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and then the Parisian swimming will start

01:30 in the summer of 2025, a year after the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

01:35 The overall budget for the Seine's sanitation has been valued at about 1.4 billion euros

01:43 over 8 to 10 years and it focuses on a certain amount of investment necessary to improve

01:48 this quality of water.

01:49 All this is done in a very regulatory framework.

01:54 We must meet European water quality requirements.

01:58 The quality is improving.

02:02 Last summer, for example, on the site that will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games

02:08 events, on the period of the Olympic Games, so on the 15 days, 92% of those days, the

02:13 quality of the water was satisfactory or excellent, so it would have allowed the hosting of these

02:17 events.

02:18 The requirements of the International Federation will be met here in Paris, the quality of

02:24 the water will be good.

02:25 Without the Games, we would have probably arrived, but maybe in 30 or 40 years, which we would

02:30 have been able to do in 8 to 10 years.

02:33 We are now meeting in the summer of 2025, all in swimsuits, to enjoy and discover the

02:38 Seine from a different perspective than the one we have today.

02:47 Paris has made the Seine its leading star in the upcoming Olympics, but not many people

02:52 would brave its murky waters just yet.

02:56 The iconic river has built a filthy reputation as a dump yard for all sorts of trash, plastic,

03:03 cigarette butts and even electric scooters.

03:06 More than 350 tons of waste are hauled out of the Seine every single year.

03:13 But the biggest hurdle to making the Seine swimmable could be the seedy sewer system.

03:19 It combines stormwater and sewage water before they reach treatment centers.

03:24 When heavy rain hits, the system can easily be overwhelmed, discharging contaminated water

03:31 back into the river.

03:33 Nearly 2 million cubic meters in 2022.

03:37 The French capital now plans to curb water pollution for good.

03:42 Flooded boats and thousands of homes along the river will need to be hooked up to the

03:46 seedy sewage system before 2024.

03:51 Cleaning up the Seine has been years in the making.

03:54 Officials say the amount of wastewater entering the river is now 90% lower than 20 years ago.

04:02 But how clean is clean enough?

04:04 And what will it take for Parisians to finally take the plunge?

04:11 "We are now on the edge of the Seine.

04:22 I was taken in by water to check the amount of fecal bacteria that was present in the water.

04:31 We have to measure the presence of two species of bacteria, Escherichia coli, and on the other

04:48 hand we have to measure the presence of enterococcus intestinalis.

04:51 These are fecal bacteria of human origin.

04:56 They come from the main waste water networks.

05:03 The second potentially important source is other warm-blooded animals that we would have

05:09 in the city.

05:11 These fecal-indicating bacteria are not dangerous in themselves.

05:15 Their interest is to be indicators of the presence of fecal pollution.

05:22 And if there is fecal pollution, there is a risk that viruses, for example transmitted

05:28 by the feces of men, are also present.

05:31 And these viruses could be dangerous viruses.

05:35 Back at the lab, we're going to put the water in small bottles with products that will

05:44 allow these bacteria to grow.

05:46 We're going to place them in a 37-degree storage for 18 to 24 hours.

05:53 When bacteria are present in the water, the manipulation we do will make a blue or yellow

06:00 color appear depending on the types of bacteria that are present.

06:05 Currently, we are in a range between 100 Escherichia coli per 100 milliliters to about 1,000, 5,000.

06:17 For the water in the Seine to be declared bathable, it must be below 900 Escherichia coli

06:24 per 100 milliliters for 90% of the time.

06:29 Fecal bacteria are always present in the Seine.

06:33 Always.

06:34 It's not because we have a few fecal bacteria in the Seine that we can't bathe.

06:40 It's all a matter of standards, of levels.

06:43 The level must be low enough for the risk of catching a disease in the Seine to be extremely low.

07:02 Here we are on the site of the Stairlitz basin, the largest operation of the Parisian sanitation network.

07:08 This project costs 90 million euros.

07:15 It's like a big underground pool.

07:17 The purpose of this basin is to give the sanitation network a storage capacity during rainy seasons.

07:31 To fill up, to let the storm pass and to avoid these spills in the Seine.

07:36 When it rains, the volume of water in the sewage network suddenly increases very significantly.

07:44 To avoid overflows in the streets, we use water and we use the Seine as a safety valve.

07:53 The Seine is used as a "sewer" to "empty" the sewage in a way that is too regular by overflows.

08:01 Tomorrow, thanks to this project, it will be intercepted via a pipe of 2.5 metres in diameter and 600 metres long between where we are and the Stairlitz bridge.

08:13 The water flows gravitally into this interceptor, reaches the basin, which is 50 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep.

08:20 The volume is equivalent to 20 underground Olympic swimming pools.

08:24 The next day, after the rain, in less than 24 hours, we pump this water from the basin, we put it back in the sewers of the hospital boulevard.

08:33 It will flow to the sewage station to be treated before being sent to the natural environment.

08:38 This type of project will reduce the spills in the Seine and therefore simply improve the ecological state of its ecosystem.

08:48 The state of the water and therefore the quality of the water also in a sanitary sense.

08:52 The Olympic Games, with the effect of swimming for the athletes and then for the general public afterwards,

09:01 allowed us to give a boost, an acceleration, for the improvement of the ecological state of the Seine.

09:08 There's one thing, however, that these massive works cannot fix.

09:14 The unpredictability of the weather. Sudden storms could still put pressure on a fragile system.

09:21 Modernizing wastewater treatment plants remains a key pillar of the French capital's strategy.

09:28 Today, the treatment plants are already effective.

09:40 It is about being even better, adding additional treatment stages to contribute to the achievement of the Béniade objective.

09:47 Among the actions undertaken within the framework of the Béniade plan, there is the modernization of the Marnaval factories and the Seine-Valentin factory.

09:59 It is about integrating dedicated treatments into the treatment lines to eliminate fecal bacteria.

10:08 The Marnaval factory will be equipped with ultraviolet lamps.

10:11 The wastewater that has been treated, that is, the organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, will be removed,

10:18 and the wastewater will be passed through the ramps of ultraviolet lamps.

10:23 The light will irradiate the water and, as a result, the bacteria still present will be killed, deactivated.

10:33 It must be kept in mind that very low volumes of wastewater introduced into the river bring large quantities of germs.

10:40 100 milliliters of wastewater contain several million germs.

10:44 When this wastewater passes through our treatment lines, it emits a large part of it.

10:49 This is good, but it is not enough to achieve the Béniade objective.

10:54 The fact is that by using or adding these treatment stages, we will still divide the concentrations in the water that we will return to the river by a thousand.

11:04 The two wastewater plants have, of course, very strategic positions, since they are located at the entrance of Paris.

11:11 All the efforts that will be made on these plants to gain treatment performance,

11:15 we will see it on the quality of the river that will enter the city of Paris.

11:21 The collection basin of the Parisian agglomeration is exceptional.

11:24 I remind you that more than 9 million Franciliens are installed on a river with a low flow rate.

11:30 And every day, these 9 million Franciliens generate about 2 million cubic meters of water, 2 billion liters.

11:38 So we can see the very sensitive nature.

11:40 This allows us to appreciate the extent of the challenge.

11:43 And this challenge is possible because, for 50 years,

11:46 efforts have been made to improve the robustness and performance of these treatment plants.

11:51 We can be quite optimistic about our ability to achieve this goal.

11:56 [Music]

12:03 (upbeat music)

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