As Paris preps for Olympics, safety of the iconic River Seine remains in question

The water in this part of the Seine, on the western edge of Paris, is only slightly murky. Dried leaves and the occasional dead fish float by. But when a blue plastic bag sails past the docks of the Arc de Seine Kayak club, Pierre Leguay points excitedly, ready to scoop it up.

“Everyone asks if we can swim in the Seine,” says Mr. Leguay, vice president of the kayak club, which does volunteer cleanup of the river. “It is the question.”

A plastic bag is easy to catch. But to collect smaller debris from the water, Mr. Leguay and his fellow kayakers use a homemade trap, of a nylon attached to a plastic container. They then send the captured gunk to a Bordeaux-based lab to check for bacteria levels. In February, kayakers collected 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of garbage in a single outing.

With just over two months until the 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games, the cleanliness of the Seine is increasingly under the microscope – quite literally. The iconic river is set to host events like the triathlon and marathon swim, but just last month, a water charity released a report showing an “alarming” presence of E. coli.

Water hygiene isn’t the only concern around the Seine. The river will also play host to the opening ceremony, in an open-air event that will see athletes floating through a stretch of the French capital in a parade of boats. While the show promises to be spectacular, it also creates a monumental task for security forces.

With the Seine taking a central role in the Olympics, will authorities be able to keep it safe for athletes and attendees, both in and out of the water?

“We’re in that pre-Olympic phase where there are lots of worries, but we know now, better than ever, how to prepare and protect ourselves,” says Pierre Bréchon, professor emeritus of political science at Sciences Po Grenoble. “The idea of holding [Olympic events] on the Seine is a strong image that has the power to create an emotional reaction for people watching around the world. It’s seductive.”

Flowing in the right direction?

Paris has come to be defined by its River Seine, a 481-mile-long waterway that originates in Burgundy before spilling into the English Channel. And while a ride down its banks offers spectacular views of the Eiffel Tower, the Seine has long acted as the city’s drainage basin, thanks to a 19th-century system that combines sewage and street runoff.

In an effort to fend off a spike in pollution levels during the Games, Paris officials have spent $1.5 billion on a new reservoir near the Austerlitz train station that can collect 13 million gallons of wastewater before it reaches the Seine.

During the inauguration of the reservoir on May 2, France’s sports minister praised the city’s ability to “provide athletes from all over the world with an exceptional setting on the Seine for their events” and the prefect of the Paris region said that cleanup efforts were “on time.”

But much depends on the weather. Bacteria levels rise after heavy rainfall, and if it storms during the Olympics, athletes might just have to wait to compete – or not compete at all.

“There are periods when the Seine is clean, but it just depends on where and when,” says Vincent Darnet, the environment project coordinator for the Arc de Seine Kayak club. “In any case, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen the water this clean. The Olympics have definitely accelerated things in the right direction.”

While cleaning up the Seine for athletes is a calculated process involving lab tests and measurements, securing the river and surrounding neighborhoods for residents and tourists during the Games is a far harder task. More than 300,000 people have tickets to attend the outdoor opening ceremony, with hundreds of thousands more expected in the streets and watching from apartments overlooking the Seine.

To tackle the challenge, France will deploy around 45,000 police officers and gendarmes each day of the Games, in addition to 18,000 military troops and up to 22,000 private security force members. Several countries, including Poland and Germany, have also agreed to send members of their security forces to ramp up safety.

The Olympics have been attacked before – in Munich in 1972 and in Atlanta in 1996. And with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, and a recent terrorist attack in Moscow by the Islamic State group, observers say French authorities are under added pressure to show strength.

“It’s a question of our risk culture. Do we give in to fear and stop everything or not?” says Marc Hecker, the deputy director of the Ifri think tank in Paris. “As a society, we need to show proof of our resilience.”

Greater ambitions

But some residents living near the Seine are having trouble feeling reassured. Paris officials have encouraged people to work from home during the Games, as large portions of the city center will be barricaded off, only accessible with an event ticket or QR code for residents. Not only will daily life be disrupted; some worry that crime could go up. Already in December 2023, a German tourist was stabbed to death on the Bir-Hakeim bridge near the Eiffel Tower.

“People feel torn between staying during the Olympics and being monitored every time they come and go, or leaving their apartments to the possibility of a break-in,” says Elke Germain-Thomas, the president of the association Passy-Seine, a neighborhood group representing residents around the Seine and Eiffel Tower area.

With the Olympics just over two months away, Paris officials are cautiously optimistic that security efforts related to the Seine, both in terms of hygiene and public safety, are on track. In early April, Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Organising Committee, said officials were “ready to face this final stretch with confidence” but cognizant of unexpected challenges.

And while the Olympics are putting cleanup of the Seine on the fast track, authorities say the effort is part of a larger ambition that extends far beyond the Games.

“We have to think about the legacy of the Olympics,” says Valérie Pécresse, president of the Paris region. “Everything we’re doing is for the people.”

It has been illegal to swim in the Seine for 100 years due to high pollution levels, and 70% of French people polled in 2021 by the IFOP polling agency described the Seine negatively – some calling it dirty and smelly. But Mr. Leguay at the Arc de Seine Kayak club says that when the summer months roll around, both children and adults are itching to jump into the river.

As for Olympic athletes, only time will tell whether Paris’ cleanup efforts have proven effective and if the iconic Seine can live up to expectations.

“There’s nothing I can do outside of just prepare and not be stressed about [whether the Seine is clean],” said Morgan Pearson, who will be competing in the Olympic triathlon, during a press conference in New York. “There are [people] figuring all of that out, so let’s just be ready no matter what.”

Ira Porter contributed reporting from New York.