The water quality of the Seine continues to cause concern. Several swimming competitions at the Olympic Games in Paris are still at risk.
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- Several swimming competitions are to be held on the Seine during the Olympic Games.
- However, the water quality of the capital's river continues to cause discussion. On Sunday morning, the triathletes' training session had to be canceled due to the poor water quality.
- The state invested over 1 billion euros last year to clean up the Seine.
The latest decision by those responsible has created new uncertainty. On Sunday morning, the triathletes' first swimming training session had to be canceled. The organizers justified this with the poor water quality.
The health of the athletes had priority. The analyses had shown "that the water quality does not offer sufficient guarantee for the event to take place". The reason for this was the rainfall of the past few days. However, the organizers expressed confidence that the water quality would improve before the first triathlon competition on Tuesday.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had made the Seine the focal point of Paris' Olympic bid. Several swimming competitions are to be held in the river flowing through the middle of the city, where the opening ceremony took place on Friday evening. In mid-July, Hidalgo himself took a dip in the Seine to demonstrate that the river had been successfully cleaned up.
Investments of around 1.4 billion euros
In recent years, the state has invested around 1.4 billion euros to clean up the Seine. This involved connecting numerous households to the sewage system that had previously discharged their wastewater directly into the Seine and its tributaries. In addition, a huge overflow basin was built in Paris so that the sewage system no longer flooded the Seine during heavy rainfall.
SDA
