Paris is ready to provide the Olympic swimmers with a clean river April 23, 2024

French Minister for Sport and the Olympic Games, Amelie Oudea-Castera, gestures during her speech at the inauguration ceremony of the department's river water treatment plant in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris on April 23, 2024. Photo: Bertrand GUAY / AFP

By AFP Agence France Presse

Paris is ready to provide the Olympic swimmers with a clean river

Champigny-sur-Marne, France: The French sports minister on Tuesday unveiled a treatment plant designed to keep waste out of the Seine and declared that "we are ready" for Olympic events in the river.

The Olympic open water competitions and triathlon swims will take place on a scenic stretch of the river in the heart of Paris, where bacteria levels exceeded the maximum set by the city last summer.

The cleanliness of the river depends heavily on the weather. Heavy rainfall washes pollution from the banks and causes drains and sewers to back up into the river.

Storms shortly before the competitions could lead to the Olympic Games being postponed or canceled.

At the opening of a rainwater treatment plant on the Marne, which flows into the Seine to the east of Paris, Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said on Tuesday that ensuring the two rivers are buoyant was "one of the challenges of the century".

She pointed out that there are still 94 days to go until the Olympic Games.

"We are ready, on time," she said, "We will be ready to fulfill our legacy."

The plant is designed to return clean water to the Marne.

"That's the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool per hour," said Olivier Capitanio, president of the Val-de-Marne department.

A huge cistern for overflow water was opened last May in Austerlitz on the eastern edge of Paris city center. It can hold the water from 20 Olympic swimming pools.

The measures to rehabilitate the two rivers should also enable residents to swim in them, which has not been possible in the Marne since 1970.