One month from the Paris Olympics, tests reveal the River Seine is still unfit for swimming
The latest water quality tests on the Seine show that the the river is still too polluted to swim in. And with a range of water sports scheduled to take place along the Seine in central Paris during next month's Olympic Games, organisers are hoping that the July sun will be enough to make the river fit for the world's top athletes.
The river Seine is still failing water quality tests one month before the Paris Olympics when it is scheduled to host the open-water swimming competition and the swimming leg of the triathlon, results showed Friday.
The latest tests, completed last week and released by the Paris mayor's office, showed levels of the E.Coli bacteria – an indicator of faecal matter – are far above the upper limits imposed by sports federations.
On June 18, the level of E.Coli was 10 times acceptable levels and at no point did it fall below the upper limit of 1,000 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres (cfu/ml) used by the World Triathlon Federation.
The readings for enterococci bacteria were better, but they were still at unsafe levels for several days last week.
"Water quality remains degraded because of unfavourable hydrological conditions, little sunshine, below-average seasonal temperatures and upstream pollution," the mayor's office said in a statement.
(AFP)
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