Despite recent heavy rains, swimming in the River Seine is still the plan at the Paris Olympics after a $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) investment to improve the water quality, according to a report Thursday by the Associated Press. Marathon swimmers and triathletes are scheduled to plunge into the cleaned-up waters after the Olympics open in July.
Heavy rains that overwhelmed old sewers in Paris have already prevented several test events for the Olympics from taking place last August and Olympic organisers also have not been lucky with the weather so far this summer.
Just last week an open water swimming test event was cancelled due to heavy rainfall with officials saying it could lead to increased pollution in the Seine with Paris’ overwhelmed sewerage system — despite recently inaugurating a huge reservoir next to Austerlitz train station to collect excess rainwater and prevent bacteria-laden waste from entering the river.
The huge new structure —buried 30 metres underground…
Source: Leadership Newspaper
