Paris to Make the Seine River Swimmable for the Olympics
Paris has an ambitious strategy to make its iconic Seine River swimmable by 2024– and if it works, it might provide other European cities a blueprint for cleaning up their own bacteria-laden rivers.
The challenge: Paris has already announced strategies to hold the 2024 Summer Olympics’ opening ceremony at its historic River Seine– but it does not want the river to be merely a scenic backdrop.
The Olympic host wishes to hold some events in the Seine, just like it provided for the 1900 Summer Olympics. However, swimming in the river has actually been unlawful since 1923, due in part to poor water grade.
“All it takes is a heavy rainfall for sewer overflows to contaminate an area of the river”, said Dan Angelescu.
The issue is the Paris sewer system, that can become overwhelmed throughout heavy rains. Sewage joins with the rainwater and then flows into the Seine from more than forty storm drains.
That results in massive levels of bacteria that can make people ill, causing diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, and other health issues.
The concept: To combat this problem, Paris is spending $1.6 billion on a significant subterranean storage tank capable of holding twelve million gallons of water– about as much as you would certainly require to load 18 Olympic swimming pools.
The tank will undoubtedly be built under a public garden and be fed by an underground tunnel which collects water from 2 spillways. Water from the storage tank could then be pumped back into the sewage system as the rain subsides.
“Overflows of wastewater right into rivers are taking place regularly as severe weather events are becoming more frequent”, said Nicolas Caradot.
The city is also examining a floating, autonomous sensor system which measures bacteria levels throughout the river in real-time. The system, called Alert, will aid the city track when and also where degrees are spiking in the Seine.
“All it takes is a heavy rainfall for sewer overflows to contaminate a section of the river,” Dan Angelescu, founder of Fluidion, Alert’s manufacturer, informed EURACTIV France.
Alert makes it possible to “rapidly access different parts of the river to identify the sources of pollution as well as study their dispersion,” he added.
The big picture: Paris is not the only major European city finding its centuries-old sewage system overwhelmed by rain– and climate change is contributing to the problem.
“Overflows of wastewater into rivers are taking place more frequently as extreme weather events such as heavy rains are becoming more regular,” Nicolas Caradot, a urban water management specialist, told EuroNews.
So, if Paris plans to make the Seine swimmable works out, other cities could end up trying to duplicate it with their own rivers– even if there are not any Olympians poised to dive into them.
Read the original article on Free Think.
