He had promised it a year ago, he had to postpone it twice due to the poor quality of the water and this Wednesday, finally, the mayor of Paris kept his promise, which is also an old dream of Parisians: to bathe in the water of the river. Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the waters of the emblematic river, dressed in a wetsuit and diving goggles.
They accompanied her into the water Tony Estanguetpresident of the organizing committee of the Olympic Gamesand the prefect of Paris, Mark Guillaume. The mayor went down the steps of the bathing establishment and swam a bit, amidst shouts and applause, about 20 degrees. All the swimmers wore neoprene, as temperatures in Paris are not very high for mid-July.
The image, beyond the anecdote, has a lot of meaning. The river has not been swimmable for a century, poor water qualityThe city has been working for months to achieve the levels of pollution get off and celebrate on the Seine some of the events of the Olympic Games that will begin next week in Paris, the freestyle swimming and the triathlon.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in the Seine.EFE
Last summer some of the planned pilot tests had to be cancelled because the presence of bacteria in the water was high. Freestyle swimming was possible, but not the triathlon. In preparation for the Games, the triathlon races will be held on July 30 and 31, and the marathon swimming races on August 8 and 9. In case the water quality is not good by then (just because Hidalgo swam today does not guarantee it), There is plan B and plan C.
Nine days to go until the event inauguration ceremony of the sporting event and there were many doubts about whether the river was in condition to host the events. Anna Hidalgo He had to postpone his long-awaited bath twice.. I was supposed to do it on June 30th, but it was postponed due to high contamination levels. Same thing last week. The conditions were finally met: acceptable weather and clean water.
«Was a day of sleep«There was a lot of work to make it happen, there is the technical part, the infrastructure… and we did it (…) This will be the greatest legacy of the Games,» said the mayor, still soaking wet, after leaving the river. The idea is that, after next year’s Olympic event, there will be several accessible bathing areas in the river so that Paris residents or tourists can do so.
Cleaning the Seine cost the state 1.4 billion euros since 2016, when work began to purify the river. The main problem is that, when it rains a lot, the purification systems are unable to filter all the water and it is poured into the Seine, filling it with waste. Added to this are the boats that pass on the river.
They have modernized sewage treatment plants and, in addition, a pharaonic work was built, consisting of a mega underground reservoir with the capacity to store rainwater and prevent it from flowing into the Seine.
Hidalgo is not the first to do so, in fact. The Minister of Sport preceded him over the weekend, Amlie Ouda-Castrawhich was wet with underwear included. The French president had also promised it Emmanuel Macroneven if this, in the midst of the country’s political crisis after having brought forward the legislative elections and with the government in office, has not kept its promise for the moment.
