Plans for more strict pollution monitoring in the River Seine have been unveiled ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to an Inside the Games Report.
The river was unusable for the Olympic test events last month in both open water swimming and the triathlon, forcing organizers to take a deeper look into the issue.
Pollution has been an issue in the Seine for decades and swimming in the river has been banned since 1923 because of those pollution issues. But after the Olympics, that could change.
But that means the water will have to prove to be swimmable, which it didn’t for the test events.
For the Open Water Swimming World Cup, the event was canceled because an above-average rainfall led to the overflowing of sewers, which affected the water quality.
It prompted a warning from World Aquatics that “further work is needed with Paris 2024 and local authorities to ensure robust contingency plans are in place for next year,” according to Inside the Games.
A total of $1.5 billion has been spent since 2016 to clean up the river, including installing wastewater collection networks for the 260 boats moored in Paris, according to the report.
The Seine was used for men’s and women’s races at the World Triathlon Olympic Games Test event in Paris, but not for the mixed relay or the World Triathlon Para Cup because of water quality.
Organisers claimed this was due to “a significant discrepancy on the data between the results of the latest water quality tests provided by the laboratory and the high frequency sample analysersm,” according to the report.
The cycling and running continued and the competition became a duathlon.
