Giant Seine reservoir ready for service as Paris 2024 Games loom
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00:00 Now with just three months to go until the Summer Olympics here in Paris, many are wondering if the Seine River will really be clean enough for the Olympians to swim in.
00:09 Well, one key element is a so-called stormwater cistern. It was inaugurated today to try and make sure the Seine's a little cleaner.
00:18 And Solange Mougin is here to tell us why this underground structure, Solange, could be the key to ensuring the events in the Seine do go ahead this summer.
00:27 So just tell us, first of all, what is a stormwater cistern?
00:31 Well, it's essentially a huge tank to protect against sewage overflow in the case that there is too much rain.
00:38 But engineers on this project, excuse me, I've lost my earring, have more poetic terms for it, such as an underground cathedral or a forest of 80 meter tall concrete pillars.
00:49 Work on this one was inaugurated today in central Paris. It began in 2021 and cost some 90 million euros.
00:58 It can hold around 50,000 meters cubes of rainwater and sewage. And that is the equivalent of some 20 Olympic swimming pools.
01:07 Needless to say, the engineers are pretty proud of it.
01:11 The mixture of wastewater and rainwater during intense rainfall will come through this pipe. It will fill the basin to its full capacity.
01:20 And when the rain is over, the basin is emptied by a pumping system and much smaller pipes which will empty into the sewer.
01:28 Now, the basin is actually quite emblematic because it is below central Paris, near the Gare d'Austelle in the fifth.
01:36 The Paris mayor's office and local officials are enthusiastic about it because they see it as a sort of safety net of sorts in case it rains too much just before the Olympic events.
01:48 Well, explain that to us then. Why are officials worried that it might rain a lot?
01:52 Well, Paris' sewage system dates back to the 19th century and it actually mixes rainwater with sewage and waste from Parisians' toilets.
02:01 That water is then sent to filtration plants. But if it rains too much and the system goes into an overflow mode,
02:07 then that dirty sewage goes into the Seine River through 44 different spillways or release areas.
02:13 Now, this is one of the major reasons that the Seine is dirty or at least is too dirty at times to hold competitions in,
02:20 like last August when the trial runs of events were cancelled because there was too much bacteria in the water.
02:26 So with this huge concrete tank and other projects that are similar to it, Paris hopes to buy more time by holding that excess water and sewage back.
02:36 But the system is not infallible. If there is a massive storm, these tanks can overflow as well.
02:43 This gives us the option to eventually have a few days of wiggle room until the sun and dry weather comes out again.
02:54 This allows us to not have to cancel and it is this guarantee that's essential.
03:00 Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, speaking there, Solange. And tell us, was this project built just for the Olympics?
03:07 Well, even if the pollution of the Seine has long been an issue, Jacques Chirac, he actually said he wanted a swimmable Seine in 1990.
03:15 It was often seen as sort of a pipe dream. Many people nowadays, too, think of it as a pipe dream.
03:19 So the Olympics definitely gave this project a coup de pouce, as we say in French, or a helping hand.
03:24 A swimmable Seine was actually one of the mayor's pillars in her bid for the Olympics.
03:30 Anne Hidalgo has even vowed to swim in the Seine in the month of June.
03:35 She also plans to open three areas to the public by the summer of 2025 and some 20 other projects in the suburbs are also in the works.
03:43 The state has invested some 1.4 billion euros to make the Seine and the Marne rivers cleaner and swimmable again with massive cisterns,
03:51 modernized treatment plants, underwater tunnels, control centers as well.
03:55 But currently, we really are not there yet. In 2023, none of the 14 test sites met the bacterial criteria that is set by the EU.
04:04 And it's not just because of sewage. There are also pesticide uses from farms upstream,
04:09 the pollution from all of the freight traffic that passes through these rivers, and of course, people dumping their trash.
04:16 And that is the downside. But there is an upside. And that is there is a real push in Paris to get the river back to a more pristine state.
04:24 It actually only became too dangerous to swim in in the 1960s. Swimming was outlawed in 1923,
04:31 but that was mostly to keep swimmers from disturbing the shipping traffic.
04:34 So today, there is this real will to reclaim the Seine as it once was, a place where people could reflect, swim, enjoy a hot day and be in the water at the same time.