Paris Mayor Defies Poo Threats to Swim in Seine, and Prove a Point
On a sunny Wednesday in Paris, the city’s Mayor inches down a ladder into the blue-brown water of the river Seine, one cautious step at a time. After a few seconds, once Anne Hidalgo’s wetsuit is completely submerged, she dons small dark goggles and dunks her face underwater—proving to the photographers and TV cameras following her by boat that she believes this water is clean.This is a historic moment for Paris, which many people believed was not going to happen. Swimming in The Seine has been banned for the past century and a river clean enough for a political photo-op has long been an ambition among French lawmakers.This clean-up operation has become the centerpiece of what Paris is calling “The Greenest Ever Games” and the legacy of this effort is expected to last. After Hidalgo dries off, The Seine will stage several Olympic swimming events before three public bathing areas will open in the Games’ aftermath.But the €1.4 billion ($1.5bn) clean-up operation is not really about swimming. The ability to bathe in The Seine is simply a side show; payback to Parisians for the use of massive public funds to complete such an ambitious river restoration project. Instead, the real goal is to protect a source of drinking water and help life return to the river, so fish—such as the famous Parisian catfish—can continue to thrive.The promise of swimming is intended to guard against the kind of criticism that pits environmental projects against the needs of ordinary people. Online accounts have already pledged to poop in The Seine en masse under the hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeine, or #IPooInTheSeine, to protest the amount of money spent on the project, as ordinary people struggle with the cost of living. (There is no evidence anyone actually did this, and whoever set up the original website did not reply to WIRED’s request for comment.)“Having this totemic goal of swimming in the river is something that really helps politically … because it’s very expensive,” says Caroline Whalley, a water pollution expert at the European Environment Agency. “It's a way to get public support, because they can see the benefit. There's something in it for them.”The Seine started to die at the onset of the 20th century. For 50 years, raw sewage was released into the river, prompting the city to put an end to idyllic scenes of families cavorting in the water, ruling bathing in the water (mostly) illegal from 1923. In the years that followed, The Seine became a grim symbol of industrialization.“There was no life in the river Seine during these 50 years,” says Jean-Marie Mouchel, a professor at the Sorbonne University, who has been studying the river since the 80s. The sewage sapped the water of oxygen and created obstacles for river traffic. “There was so much sediment and deposits from the sewers that [they created] mountains of deposits on the bottom [of the river],” says Mouchel, “so boats couldn't even pass through.”
French politicians’ pledge to make swimming possible in the iconic river is a way to ward off criticism about the cost of the clean up operation.
On a sunny Wednesday in Paris, the city’s Mayor inches down a ladder into the blue-brown water of the river Seine, one cautious step at a time. After a few seconds, once Anne Hidalgo’s wetsuit is completely submerged, she dons small dark goggles and dunks her face underwater—proving to the photographers and TV cameras following her by boat that she believes this water is clean.
This is a historic moment for Paris, which many people believed was not going to happen. Swimming in The Seine has been banned for the past century and a river clean enough for a political photo-op has long been an ambition among French lawmakers.
This clean-up operation has become the centerpiece of what Paris is calling “The Greenest Ever Games” and the legacy of this effort is expected to last. After Hidalgo dries off, The Seine will stage several Olympic swimming events before three public bathing areas will open in the Games’ aftermath.
But the €1.4 billion ($1.5bn) clean-up operation is not really about swimming. The ability to bathe in The Seine is simply a side show; payback to Parisians for the use of massive public funds to complete such an ambitious river restoration project. Instead, the real goal is to protect a source of drinking water and help life return to the river, so fish—such as the famous Parisian catfish—can continue to thrive.
The promise of swimming is intended to guard against the kind of criticism that pits environmental projects against the needs of ordinary people. Online accounts have already pledged to poop in The Seine en masse under the hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeine, or #IPooInTheSeine, to protest the amount of money spent on the project, as ordinary people struggle with the cost of living. (There is no evidence anyone actually did this, and whoever set up the original website did not reply to WIRED’s request for comment.)
“Having this totemic goal of swimming in the river is something that really helps politically … because it’s very expensive,” says Caroline Whalley, a water pollution expert at the European Environment Agency. “It's a way to get public support, because they can see the benefit. There's something in it for them.”
The Seine started to die at the onset of the 20th century. For 50 years, raw sewage was released into the river, prompting the city to put an end to idyllic scenes of families cavorting in the water, ruling bathing in the water (mostly) illegal from 1923. In the years that followed, The Seine became a grim symbol of industrialization.
“There was no life in the river Seine during these 50 years,” says Jean-Marie Mouchel, a professor at the Sorbonne University, who has been studying the river since the 80s. The sewage sapped the water of oxygen and created obstacles for river traffic. “There was so much sediment and deposits from the sewers that [they created] mountains of deposits on the bottom [of the river],” says Mouchel, “so boats couldn't even pass through.”