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Stephane De Sakutin

PARIS — The mayor of Paris is getting ready to swim in the Seine River, and to the skeptics who doubt it will be clean enough for the Olympics, she says, “Come, it will be quite a nice party.” 

French officials sounded optimistic Thursday as they unveiled a huge underground reservoir that is key to the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/interactive/2024/paris-olympics-seine-river-opening-ceremony/?itid=lk_inline_manual_15" target="_blank"> $1.4 billion project to address pollution</a> in the iconic river.

“Today, we are advancing serenely, and we are very confident in our ability to organize competitions this summer in the Seine,” said Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Olympics organizing committee.

The Austerlitz basin may not be particularly exceptional as an engineering feat, but its inauguration generated buzz here in the face of public doubt that the river would be ready as a venue for the triathlon and marathon swimming events in late July and August.

Bacteria levels above safe limits led to the cancellation of the swimming portion of a Paralympic triathlon test and the <a href="https://www.worldaquatics.com/news/3617727/cancellation-of-the-world-aquatics-open-water-swimming-world-cup-paris?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template" target="_blank">Open Water Swimming World Cup</a> last summer. Then, last month, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/09/seine-paris-olympics-water-quality/" target="_blank">Surfrider Foundation</a> environmental group reported <a href="https://www.surfrider.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Surfrider_lettre-ouverte-QES_JOP2024.pdf" target="_blank">“alarming” contamination</a>, with testing at one site over six months showing higher-than-recommended levels of E. coli and enterococci bacteria. But <a href="https://www.prefectures-regions.gouv.fr/ile-de-france/irecontenu/telechargement/115554/862745/file/08.04.2024%20-%20CP%20La%20quali%C3%A9%20de%20l'eau%20de%20la%20Seine%20sera%20au%20rendez-vous%20.pdf" target="_blank">Paris officials responded</a> that central elements of the cleanup project were not operational yet and that there had been more rainfall during the testing than would be expected in the summer.

The plan to make one of the world’s most romanticized rivers swimmable for the first time in decades relies on a not-so-romantic basin designed to prevent sewage from overflowing into the Seine.

The facility,<b> </b>almost 99 feet underground near the city’s Austerlitz train station, can collect as much as 20 Olympic-size swimming pools’ worth of excess rain and wastewater during heavy downpours, to limit the risk of the Paris sewage network being overwhelmed.

Ellen Francis

“Fundamentally, the objective is not to discharge polluted water into the river,” Samuel Colin-Canivez, head of major works for the Paris sanitation network, said inside the basin Thursday.

While there are other and bigger storm-water facilities in the world, the project had “an original character,” he said, because it required inserting the basin under the urban environment of Paris and linking it to the city’s old sewage system.

He acknowledged: “We are not used to it, in the world of sanitation, to have this media interest.”

The Seine is slated to play a starring role at the Olympics, starting with the Opening Ceremonies, when the 10,500 athletes are supposed to participate in a boat parade, as spectators marvel from the banks.

Paris Mayor <a href="https://apnews.com/article/paris-olympics-swimming-seine-water-quality-hidalgo-0c8db892ec7e76187123a1bc1a119023" target="_blank">Anne Hidalgo</a> and French President <a href="https://apnews.com/article/paris-olympics-macron-seine-swim-41397d61b8ef53c516241a50fc3f42a1" target="_blank">Emmanuel Macron</a> have both promised to take a dip in the newly revitalized river before the Summer Games begin.

On Thursday, Hidalgo quipped that officials were picking out their bathing suits.

“In Paris, there’s also a childhood dream to be able to swim in this river, where people swam 100 years ago,” she said after touring the cavernous basin that took more than three years to complete. “And here we are, because of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” she added. “It was a big mobilization of resources that we couldn’t do alone.”

Stephane De Sakutin/Pool

Swimming competitions took place in the Seine when Paris hosted its first Olympic Games, in 1900. But subsequent industrialization and population growth created a polluted mess. Public swimming has been officially banned where the river threads through Paris <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/29/seine-paris-olympics/" target=_blank>since 1923</a>.

For years, there has been talk of making the Seine swimmable again. In the 1990s, then-Mayor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDZ-vtQXxRM" target=_blank>Jacques Chirac</a> vowed to do it, and said he would plunge in himself — which did not happen.

But the high-profile interest, and the flow of money, that comes with hosting the Olympics sped up a plan that officials hailed as a way for Parisians to reconnect with their city and its heritage.

Beyond the Olympics, officials hope to open river-water swimming pools along the Seine for Parisians and visitors, including near the<a href="https://www.lesechos.fr/politique-societe/regions/exclusif-grand-paris-la-seine-sera-baignable-en-2025-la-marne-en-2022-142202" target=_blank> Louvre and Notre Dame</a>, and in other, less-privileged neighborhoods.

The Austerlitz basin is a piece of a larger project that includes other facilities, such as a water-treatment plant upstream, outside Paris, that was <a href="https://www.bfmtv.com/paris/replay-emissions/bonjour-paris/val-de-marne-la-station-de-traitement-des-eaux-pluviales-a-champigny-sur-marne-inauguree_VN-202404240105.html" target=_blank>inaugurated</a> last month.

The river water will be regularly tested to determine safety levels for Olympics events. Authorities have suggested that some events could be delayed by a few days as a backup plan if results are not up to standards.

Colin-Canivez, the engineer in the basin, said the “collective action plan” is to make the Seine safe for swimming during the summer season. Still, he added, factors including summer storms and rainfall intensity prompted discussions about contingencies, and “we cannot say precisely in advance that one day will be an absolute guarantee.”

American University of Beirut, BE in Civil Engineering

Columbia University, MS in Journalism

Ellen Francis is a reporter covering breaking news for The Washington Post in London. 

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Paris 2024 ‘confident’ Seine will be clean for Olympic swimming

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