tiny lemmy 

Want to take a dip in Paris? River Seine reopens to public swimming for first time in a century

c/world · u/babysandpiper@sopuli.xyz · 328 points

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For the first time in over a century, Parisians and tourists will be able to take a refreshing dip in the River Seine. The long-polluted waterway is finally opening up as a summertime swim spot following a 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) cleanup project that made it suitable for Olympic competitions last year.

Three new swimming sites on the Paris riverbank will open on Saturday — one close to Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, another near the Eiffel Tower and a third in eastern Paris.

Swimming in the Seine has been illegal since 1923, with a few exceptions, due to pollution and risks posed by river navigation. Taking a dip outside bathing areas is still banned for safety reasons.

Comments

u/rabber@lemmy.ca · 5 points

OK I'm on my way to literally murder you so you have ten minutes to clean up or else

u/SheeEttin@lemmy.zip · 3 points

Or a farm with fertilizer runoff. Or rural industrial site, like oilfield, mine, chemical plant...

u/shalafi@lemmy.world · 1 points

My local waterways aren't so fucking filthy that swimming has been banned for a century. We spent the 4th happily boating (electric!), swimming, fucking around on the local river, no thoughts of foul water.

u/JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world · 8 points

You won't live near cities that clean up their waterways? You could rival Michelin publishing that list of reasons you have.

u/oce@jlai.lu · 6 points

Do you avoid every kind of nature swimming? What if the tests say that it is as clean as the river or sea you trusted to swim before?

u/oce@jlai.lu · 27 points

I think it's mediagenic enough that journalists and other organizations probably tried to do their own tests and found nothing suspicious that wasn't officially announced.

By the Olympic Games 2024, the work to improve the infrastructure to prevent pollution already costed 1.4 billions of euros. I guess additional infrastructure for exceptional meteorological events was just too much to be justified.

If the water is tested every day of the opened swimming season, there's no reason to worry.

u/ms_lane@lemmy.world · 23 points

Still wouldn't trust it.

It's been a poop river for hundreds of years and they haven't separated out sewer from storm water yet.

u/oce@jlai.lu · 86 points

It's controlled every day and closed if there's any danger, for example after heavy rains bringing more pollution than usual. They have started finding different forms of life that only happen in very clean waters, it's pretty cool. One of the few positive ecological news lately.

u/BastingChemina@slrpnk.net · 33 points

It's been in the work for quite a while. The mayor of Paris announced that the seine will be open for swimming in 5 years ... In 1988.

So it took a bit longer than planned, almost 50 years instead of 5 but the fact that they are opening it now is the result of these 50 years of continuous improvement.

u/AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip · 25 points

And this is why while while everyone was *removed* about how much money this will cost i was just thinking about how nice it will be when you can finally swim in it again. Of course there is a lot of long term infrastructure that needs to be built so big rains dont flush all the shit into it but still good news. It was also smart of the mayor to do this "for" the olympics.

u/Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works · 21 points

Related, from last year

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/may/24/olympic-games-clean-up-aims-to-leave-parisians-swimming-in-the-seine

u/rabber@lemmy.ca · 11 points

No thanks I'll stick to my local secret lake that nobody shits in

u/LordWiggle@lemmy.world · 9 points

Friends with a pool had a sign saying "don't pee in our pool, we don't swim in your toilet". In Paris however...

u/lennybird@lemmy.world · 9 points

I assume embarrassment on the world stage helped move this along given the Olympics?

u/the_crotch@sh.itjust.works · 2 points

Really hilariously stupid that it took a goddamn sporting event for them to even try to clean up this river