All aboard! One hundred years later, Parisians can once again swim in the Seine. Three sites opened to the public on Saturday, July 5th, at Bras Marie, Bras de Grenelle, and Quai de Bercy. Free swimming will be available until August 31st. This is a direct legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which have accelerated work to improve water quality.
"Without the Games, maybe we would never have gotten there."
The Paris 2024 organizing committee had made the river one of the stars of the Games, through the opening ceremony and certain events, the triathlon and open water swimming. The quality of the Seine had been the subject of much discussion, but the athletes were able to swim in it as planned – despite complicated weather conditions, which had caused the cancellation of certain training sessions and the postponement of certain races. The general public will now be able to swim in it in turn and Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport, sees it as " perhaps the most symbolic legacy of the Games ».
« The distrust has not yet completely disappeared, but I am convinced that it will after this summer., he confides to Fair Games. Without the Games, we might never have made it. We did all the necessary work to improve water quality to be ready for the Games, with a deadline and a requirement for results by 2024. We were told we were doing all this for the athletes, but no: it was just a step. The most important thing is that the Games are a unique acceleration tool to create conditions that will benefit the population. This is a good definition of what the legacy of a major event should be. » By focusing on improving sanitation networks and creating wet-weather storage facilities, the Baignade plan has significantly reduced the amount of wastewater discharged into waterways in Paris and upstream. In five years, nearly half of the faulty connections have also been corrected.
Reconnecting with nature
A year after the Games, the Seine's swimmability has expanded the municipality's free leisure offerings. The Bras Marie site will be able to accommodate up to 150 people at a time. The capacity will reach 700 people at Bercy and 200 at Grenelle. An anomaly has been repaired and years of pollution have restored the water quality to good enough for swimming., Pierre Rabadan is pleasedBeyond leisure, there's the issue of scorching summers. People need places to cool off. Today, people look at the river like a street they're not allowed to go down. Now, we're really going to reclaim the river, which was the final step in this strategy. It's symbolic, but also crucial because we're reestablishing a connection with nature that we've somewhat lost in Paris over the past century. "As during the Games, swimming remains subject to weather conditions: the three sites had to be closed on Sunday due to rain.
The Baignade plan will have cost 1,4 billion euros over eight years, but Rabadan prefers to emphasize " all the money it saves us in terms of pollution control " The former rugby player persists: " This is a very long-term investment that will have a major impact, particularly on the redevelopment of ecosystems. It's important for all these reasons. » The number of fish species recorded in the Seine has thus increased from 14 in 1990 to 36 today. In January, three species of mussels classified as endangered were also identified. These are all indicators that validate the efforts already undertaken and which will be closely monitored in the coming years.
