Surveillance of the Seine River increased due to pollution concerns

Surveillance of the Seine River will be stepped up by special teams, the Paris municipality announced on Tuesday after a valve caused pollution problems in the watercourse, affecting test events en route to Paris in 2024.

“The tests confirm the need to strengthen monitoring, control and warning systems to limit any risk of unexpected releases into the Seine during dry weather,” the municipality and prefecture of the Ile-de-France region said in a statement.

A valve at the Tolbiak plant was damaged by weather events and caused emissions, confirming an August report of an incident in which a river was so polluted that two triathlons and other open water swimming events were canceled during summer rain.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923, but the French capital’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, hopes she can allow it again from 2025 in three different locations, having faced a major setback in test events that also confirmed problems other than the valve and bad weather affecting water quality.

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place in less than a year.

On September 6, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed “confidence” in holding events on the river, despite poor quality, as it was “almost a year away” and the Games organization had guaranteed that the water situation would improve by next year as “it Additional infrastructure is in place to better manage sludge and wastewater.”

These public works include a giant underground reservoir in Paris that will store excess water during storms so that it does not have to be poured into the river without treatment and can be cleaned up later.

The River Seine, which will be the epicenter of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games in Paris, is expected to host open water swimming, triathlon and paratriathlon competitions.