Paris Olympics: Seine river still to meet safety standards

The water quality of the Seine river is still not good enough to serve as the venue for swimming competitions at the Olympics, a report said. The opening ceremony is also set to take place on the river.

French authorities have spent at least €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) to clean up the Seine

Pollution levels in the Seine River in Paris remain well above what is allowed for bathing, according to a water quality report released on Friday.

The report, completed last week and released by the Paris mayor’s office, comes less than a month before the Olympic Games, in which the French capital's iconic waterway will be one of the swimming venues.

"Water quality continues to be impaired due to unfavourable hydrological conditions — rainfall, high flow velocity, low solar radiation, temperatures below the seasonal norm and pollution in the upper reaches of the river," the report stated.

What is the level of contamination?

The data showed that bacteria such as enterococci and E. coli bacteria remained well above legal limits at all four test sites along the river on Sunday.

At the Alexandre III bridge, the planned swimming site for the triathlon event, enterococci exceeded a concentration of 1000 colony-forming units (cfu)/100 ml on Sunday. This is more than double the limit of 400 cfu/100ml set by European law.

E. coli was almost four times higher than allowed.

The Paris mayor's office said on its website that water pollution levels spike in periods of heavy rain, as has been the case.

City hoping for better weather

Paris has invested €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in wastewater treatment plants and sewer system in the greater city area. The French capital is trying to clean up the Seine so people can swim in it again, as they did during the 1900 Paris Olympics.

At higher temperatures and lower water levels, disease-causing viruses and bacteria can be broken down more quickly, according to city officials. They are now hoping for better weather.

"We had a period of historic rainfall in May and a lot of rainfall in June. But that didn't worry us, because we knew that with a significant improvement in weather conditions, we'd get back to summer-like levels," Pierre Rabadan, the Paris deputy mayor in charge of sport and the Olympic games, told Reuters.

dh/rm (dpa, Reuters)