Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swims within the Seine River
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip within the River Seine in Paris on July 17 to show the water was clear sufficient to host Olympic swimming occasions that start later this month.
Hidalgo is the newest VIP to cross the murky waters of the river, following Sports activities Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on Saturday.
Constructive measures: Paris Mayor Hidalgo needs swimming to be practised within the Seine in the course of the Paris Video games. | Photograph credit score: AFP
Regardless of a significant cleanup, many Parisians are nonetheless immune to the concept of swimming in a river that periodically detects excessive ranges of micro organism attributable to fecal matter.
Learn additionally: Paris mayor to swim in Seine River to reveal cleanliness forward of Olympics
However till 1923, when it was banned attributable to air pollution and the hazard posed by barges passing by means of the river, it was a preferred pastime.
Here’s a transient historical past of swimming within the Seine. Within the seventeenth century, earlier than the revolution that overthrew the French monarchy, bathing within the Seine was a trendy pastime. On the finish of the century, swimming within the Seine remained common, with floating swimming pools put in alongside the banks.
Some followers continued to put on their speedos till the observe was formally banned in 1923.
Paris’ present mayor, Anne Hidalgo, revived the dream by bidding for the French capital to host the 2024 Video games, promising swimming occasions within the Seine.
Huge funding
Some 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) have been invested to make the Seine and its foremost tributary, the Marne, appropriate for bathing, specifically by bettering the administration of wastewater assortment.
A key characteristic of the venture concerned the development of an enormous underground rainwater storage tank close to the Austerlitz practice station to comprise extra wastewater and guarantee it didn’t movement into the Seine.
The Olympic triathlon swimming leg will happen in its waters on July 30-31 and August 5, adopted by open water swimming on August 8-9.