Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo To Bathe In River Seine

By: Gyang Dakwo

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of the city that will host the thirty-third modern Olympic Games, has announced that she will bathe in the River Seine during the week of 15 July in an attempt to silence rumours of pollution in the river that could lead to the cancellation of Olympic events.

The Seine will be the venue for the Paris 2024 10km open water swimming and triathlon swimming events at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, provided that pollution in the river that runs through much of France and the capital can be sufficiently reduced.

For decades, the Seine has been toxic to marine life and swimmers, used only for the transport of goods and tourist cruises.

It has also become a dumping ground for unused bicycles and other rubbish. Swimming in the Seine has been illegal since 1923, just one year before the second Olympic Games were held in Paris.

In early April, the Surfrider Foundation claimed to have analysed laboratory tests and concluded that the water in the Seine, which stretches nearly 800 kilometres across France, remains contaminated and potentially dangerous in the Paris area, where the Olympic swimming events will be held.

While efforts are being made to treat the Seine using various methods, including the construction of a huge storage basin (the equivalent of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools of dirty water to be treated rather than released into the river) to reduce the need to discharge sewage into the Seine when it rains, the results have not been satisfactory from a bacteriological point of view.

As part of the launch of the clean-up plan, Hidalgo had invited high-ranking officials to swim in the Seine in an event dubbed “the big dive”, including President Emmanuel Macron himself, who had also promised to swim in the iconic French river.