Paris 2024 Olympic Games: “We are confident”, Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra ensures that the waters of the Seine will be able to host the events

Amélie Oudéas-Castéra still considers the objective of reducing pollution in the Seine by 75% achievable. MAXPPP – Alexis Sciard

During a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday April 9, the Minister of Sports and Olympic Games said she was "confident" regarding the level of pollution of the Seine during the Paris Olympics despite a worrying study published the day before.

The Minister of Sports and Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, said Tuesday "confident" in "the’objective of reducing the bacteriological pollution of the Seine by 75 %" after the Monday publication of’ a study expressing alarm at the quality of the water in the river where Olympic events are to be held this summer.

The NGO Surfrider Foundation, at the origin of the study, warned on Monday against the state &quot alarming" of the waters of the Seine after having carried out a sampling campaign over six months, outside the period planned for swimming.

"Do not measure what is not measurable before the time"

"We have confidence in the action plan piloted by the prefect of Ile-de-France, a very ambitious plan on which we We have been at work for three years", indicated the minister, questioned by several deputies during a hearing before the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Assembly. "We must not measure what is not measurable before the’time", she added, redetailing the current action plan.

"We are confident in our ability to meet the objective we have set ourselves to reduce bacteriological pollution in the Seine  by 75% ;quot;, she assured.

Five major operational works "within a few weeks"

The Paris town hall and the regional prefecture, at the head of the steering committee of the plan into which the State and communities have injected 1.4 billion euros to make the river swimmable, recalled Monday that five major works intended to ensure a clean Seine in summer will be operational "within a few weeks&quot ;.

The Minister also specified that "contingency days", that is to say days of postponement, had been "cleared" for the two types of events which will take place in the Seine. The triathlon events (July 30 and 31, August 5) and open water swimming, now called marathon swimming (August 8 and 9), remain threatened by heavy precipitation which would degrade the water. rsquo;water of the Seine, via the discharge into its bed of wastewater mixed with rainwater. Analyzes sent at the end of 2023 to the AFP by the town hall had already shown that between June and September 2023, none of the 14 points of Parisian water collection had not reached a sufficient level of quality with regard to European directives.