Even before he has dipped his toes into the murky waters of B次元官网网址� famous but forbidden River Seine, French triathlete Thibaut Rigaudeau is already fielding questions from disbelieving friends.
B次元官网网址淎re you scared of swimming in the Seine?B次元官网网址� he says they ask him. B次元官网网址淚t looks disgusting.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
For decades, it was. Though immortalized in art, literature and song, and cherished by lovers who whisper sweet nothings or tearfully part on the privacy of its banks, the river was ecologically dying. It was too toxic for most fish and for swimmers, largely useful only as a waterway for goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming in the Seine has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923.
Now, however, its admittedly unappetizing green-brown waters hide a tale of rebirth.
A costly and complex cleanup is resuscitating the Seine just in time for it to play a starring role in the and, after that, for it to genuinely live up to its billing as the worldB次元官网网址檚 most romantic river, one thatB次元官网网址檚 actually fit again for people. And in a warming world, a renewed ability to take cooling dips in the river should help FranceB次元官网网址檚 capital remain liveable during . It possibly might also inspire other cities to invest in reclaiming their waterways.
B次元官网网址淚t will create waves, so to speak, across the world because a lot of cities are watching Paris,B次元官网网址� says Dan Angelescu, a scientist who is tracking the SeineB次元官网网址檚 water quality for City Hall, with regular sampling.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 the beginning of a movement,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淲e hope so, at least.B次元官网网址�
The Olympic deadline has supercharged a cleanup that has been decades in the making. Without the imperative of having to be ready for 10,500 Olympians in July and August next year, followed by 4,400 Paralympians, City Hall officials say it would have taken many more years to fund the multi-pronged, 1.4 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) effort. Because as well as hosting outdoor swim races, the Seine is going to be the centerpiece of ParisB次元官网网址� . For the first time, it will take place not in a stadium setting but along the river and its banks.
So it needs to be ready. Officials have been going after homes upstream of Paris and houseboats on the Seine that were emptying their sewage and wastewater directly into the river. An Olympic law adopted in 2018 gave moored boats two years to hook up to ParisB次元官网网址� sewage network. Sewage treatment plants on the Seine and its tributary, the Marne, are also being improved.
And more than half a billion euros (dollars) is going into huge storage basins and other public works that will reduce the need to spill bacteria-laden wastewater into the Seine untreated when it rains. One storage facility is being dug next to ParisB次元官网网址� Austerlitz train station. The giant hole will hold the equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming pools of dirty water that will now be treated rather than being spat raw through storm drains in the river.
City Hall says the water quality is already improving and that there are many more types of fish than the two or three species that were the only ones hardy enough to survive in the filth a few decades ago. It says samples taken daily last July and August in the stretch of river where Olympians and Paralympians will compete showed the water quality was overwhelmingly B次元官网网址済ood.B次元官网网址� By their sportsB次元官网网址� standards, that means acceptable.
Setting off from the SeineB次元官网网址檚 ornate Alexandre III bridge, triathletes will race first in 2024, with men on July 30, followed by women the next day. Then come marathon swimmers, on Aug. 8 and 9, and para-triathletes on Sept. 1 and 2.
Rigaudeau, who competed in para-triathlon at the 2021 Tokyo games, is thrilled by the prospect. HeB次元官网网址檚 hoping for an early taste of the experience when Paris hosts warm-up swims in the Seine this summer to hone its readiness for 2024. It will be RigaudeauB次元官网网址檚 first-ever dip in his home river.
B次元官网网址淲e will be the B次元官网网址榯esters,B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淚 hope we donB次元官网网址檛 get sick.B次元官网网址�
After the games, the river should then reopen to everyone B次元官网网址� in the summer of 2025. City Hall says five potential bathing spots are being studied within Paris itself, with others a bit further afield.
Officials hope that after so many years where swimming in the Seine was unthinkable, Parisians will start to feel that itB次元官网网址檚 safe to go back in the water when they see Olympians and Paralympians leading the way.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 going to change our lives,B次元官网网址� Rigaudeau says. B次元官网网址淏ut itB次元官网网址檚 also true that because everyone thinks that itB次元官网网址檚 really very dirty, IB次元官网网址檓 not sure if people will go of their own accord, at least at first.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址擩ohn Leicester, The Associated Press
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