Fecal matter in the Seine, the latest drama of the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games

After France is in an “attack emergency”, athletes complain that their accommodation does not have air conditioning in the height of the Parisian summer and students do not want their apartments to be vacated to accommodate firefighters and security personnel, the pollution of the Seine It’s the latest drama at the next Olympics in 2024. The waters of the river I am in an “alarming” state.warns an NGO.

Not only did President Emmanuel Macron promise to take a bath with Mayor Anne Hidalgo, but several events will be held. Since the opening ceremony in July with more than 170 boats and 280,000 guests, there has been no shortage of swimming sports activities for the Olympic competition.

Water with fecal matter

Almost 100 days before the Paris Olympic Gamesthe NGO Surfrider Foundation warned on Monday of the “alarming” state of the waters after carrying out a sampling campaign for six months.

They competed in the heart of Paris, in front of the large bridges that cross the Seine. Of the 14 measurements the association took between the end of September 2023 and the end of March 2024 under the Alexandre-III and Alma bridges, sites of future triathlons and open water swimming competitions, 13 were found to be “superior or even well, well above the recommended thresholds for swimming.”

On the 2006 European “swimming” directive and on the barometers of the swimming and triathlon federationsconcentrations of two bacteria indicative of fecal contamination, Escherichia coli and enterococci, must not exceed 1,000 colony forming units (cfu)/100 ml in Ecoli and 400 cfu/100 ml in enterococci. Beyond that, the water is considered unfit for bathing.

Not suitable for swimming

The analyzes carried out by Surfrider, in collaboration with the Eau de Paris laboratory (the same as the Paris municipality) and Analy-Co, “were carried out randomly and with a predefined program to overcome climatic conditions (rain, sun, floods ) , show E. coli concentrations regularly exceed 2000 cfu/100 ml (high of 7250 under the Alma Bridge on February 7, 2024) e 500 cfu/100 ml for enterococci (high of 1190 on February 7) .

The period analyzed does not fall within the period foreseen for swimming in the Seine, which will be reserved for the summer months.

However, other analyzes sent to the AFP agency at the beginning of 2024 by the Paris municipality had already shown that, between June and September 2023, none of the 14 Parisian water sampling points had reached a sufficient level of quality compared to the European one . directives.

Risk for athletes

Faced with these “alarming” results, Surfrider expresses its “growing concern for the quality of the waters of the Seine”. He highlights the “risks” for athletes, and not only, for the inhabitants of the Ile-de-France region, “to live next to contaminated water”. Given the “lack of visibility” and communication on the part of the authorities, the association asks, in an open letter, accessibility to event locations “before and during” for the entire duration of the Games to be able to continue bringing their champions there.

The triathlon races, which will take place on July 30 and 31 and August 5, and the open water swimming, now called marathon, on August 8 and 9, remain particularly threatened by heavy rains, which would degrade the Seine’s water , causing wastewater mixed with rainwater to pour into its bed.

At the beginning of August 2023, the dress rehearsal of the open water swimming test had to be canceled due to water quality thresholds being significantly exceeded.