Video Parisians can bathe in the Seine, after a ban over a century. A fun with huge costs for the French state
One year after the Olympic games, the general public could finally be enthusiastically resumed to bathe in Sena, under strict supervision, in the center of Paris, where he had been banned since 1923, reports France Presse, taken by Agerpres.
The first few dozen swimmers entered the water around 08:00 on the pontoons arranged with benches and changing rooms, in front of Saint-Louis Island, in the center of the French capital, under the careful eyes of the numerous rescuers equipped with yellow fluorescent shirts and shorts in the light, and pneumatic boats.
Each swimmer was equipped with a yellow float tied with a cord around the waist. The bathing was held in a perimeter surrounded by a security cord.
“The quality of the water is in accordance with the sanitary norms and the water temperature is 25 degrees, said Pierre Rabadan, the deputy head of the Sport Department at the Paris City Hall for the RMC radio station. He also intended to bathe on Saturday, specifying that regarding Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of the capital, “he is not sure.”
It went on a pontoon, along with the prefect of the Parisian Police Laurent Nunez and the Minister of Sports Marie Barsacq shortly before 08:30. “I come to jump in the water. It seems very good,” she told AFP, before making selfies with swimming swimming. Someone in the water shouted: “Thank you, Mrs. Hidalgo, it's great!”
River seine reopens to swimmers in Paris for the first time since 1923, Although Health Concerns Remain pic.twitter.com/fvln8zblvh
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A promise made by Jacques Chirac
“I dream from childhood to see people swimming in the Seine,” Anne Hidalgo reacted, which bathed in the Seine last year, before the start of the Olympic Games, after more than 30 years after the promise of Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris, and then president, to allow swimming in the Sena.
“One of my predecessors, then mayor of Paris, dreamed of a Seine in which everyone could swim. Tomorrow his promise will be fulfilled,” wrote on the X Emmanuel Macron platform on Friday, talking about this “pride for the country”.
After this first opening of a bathing place, two others were to be inaugurated in the morning: one near the Eiffel Tower and another in Bercy, in the east of the French capital. Also, the pools will be arranged there with pontoons, stairs, spa furniture, showers and changing rooms. The bathing, for free, will be authorized until August 31, if the weather conditions allow.
Promise made at the Olympic Games, the bathing in Sena first responds to a need to adapt to the climate change of the French capital, where the episodes of heat are multiplied and intensified.
Over 1.4 billion euros were invested to improve the quality of water in the upstream of the river, with works to capture wastewater to prevent them from being spoiled in the Seine. But since in Paris, rainwater and wastewater are mixed in a unique network, the only solution in case of heavy rainfall is to discharge the surplus of water in the Seine.
Record rains recorded during the Olympic games have often made improper water for athletes. This summer, as in the beach, green, yellow and red flags will allow to know the flow of the Seine and the quality of the water, analyzed by instant polls and samples. If the color is red, the bathing will be forbidden.
