Surveillance of the Seine River will be reinforced with dedicated teams, the Paris municipality announced this Tuesday, after a valve created pollution problems in that watercourse, affecting tests on the road to Paris 2024.
“The tests reinforce the need to strengthen surveillance, control and alert systems, to limit any risk of unexpected spills into the Seine in dry weather,” reads a statement from the municipality and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region.
The valve at the Tolbiac power plant was damaged by meteorological events and accidental discharges, confirming the report of the August incident, in which the river was so polluted that two triathlon events and other open water swimming events were cancelled, at the time of summer rain.
Swimming in the Seine has been prohibited since 1923, but the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo, hopes to be able to allow it again from 2025, in three different locations, suffering a severe setback with the tests, which also confirmed that they have emerged other problems, besides the valve and the weather, affecting the quality of the water.
The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in less than a year.
On September 6, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed “confidence” in holding events on that river, despite the poor quality, since it was still “almost a year away,” and the organizers of the Games They guaranteed that the water will improve next year and “additional infrastructure to better manage rainfall and wastewater” will come into operation.
These public works include a gigantic underground reservoir in Paris that will store excess water during storms so that it does not need to be dumped untreated into the river and can be treated later.
The Seine River, which will be the epicenter of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games, is expected to host open water swimming competitions and triathlon and paratriathlon swimming events.
Source: TSF
