Paris’ Seine River has unsafe levels of E coli less than 2 months before Olympics
- Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain, showed bacteria like E coli and enterococci beyond safe limits for athletes
- The safety of the water for the Olympics has been in doubt since some test events scheduled last August were cancelled, also after unseasonal heavy rain
Water in France’s Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday.
Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes.
The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were “no reasons to doubt” races will go ahead as scheduled in a historic downtown stretch of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower.
The first Olympic event in the cleaned-up Seine is the men’s triathlon, including a 1.5-km (under 1 mile) swim, on July 30. The women’s triathlon is the next day and a mixed relay event is on August 5.
Marathon swimming races over 10km (6.2 miles) for women and men are scheduled on August 8 and 9, respectively, in waters that were historically polluted before a US$1.5 billion investment ahead of the Olympics.
“We are confident that we will swim in the Seine this summer,” IOC official Christophe Dubi said Thursday at an online briefing after hearing an update Paris from city officials and Olympic organisers.
