€1.4 billion: that’s how much it cost to clean the Augean stables—in other words, to clean up the Seine and make it safe for swimming in the run-up to the Olympic Games. How many more useful projects could have been carried out with such sums! And it is the Left that indulged in such financial waste. Where are the outraged souls, usually so quick to call for ever more social expenditures?
A few days ago, the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo staged her plunge into the Seine in front of a multitude of cameras, to mark the completion of the long clean-up of the river that runs through Paris, to make it safe for bathing—something that has not happened for decades. The Minister for Sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, also took part in the exercise. President Macron had also promised to take a plunge but found a good excuse to postpone his performance.
Anne Hidalgo had made swimming in the Seine one of her key arguments to legitimise the hosting of the Olympic Games in their city in the eyes of slightly sceptical Parisians. The clean-up would be a lasting legacy of the Games that all residents could enjoy in the future, with three bathing areas to be made available by 2025. The project, known as the “Water Quality and Bathing Plan,” was first put on the table in 2016, but was given a boost by the Olympic Games.
Despite the titanic efforts made, the results are still not there. But the mayor and empress of Paris has made up her mind: the cleaning must continue. Whatever the cost.
The promise of swimming has turned into a bottomless pit. Week after week, month after month, it soon became clear that cleaning the Seine was something of an impossibility. The sewage system in towns upstream of Paris is antiquated, and some of it flows directly into the river. The city of Paris was called upon to contribute, as well as the municipalities dotted along the river upstream of the capital, or bordering the Marne, the Seine’s main tributary: a colossal mobilisation.
The press has revealed the total cost of the operation: the 2016 plan was estimated at €1.4 billion, and this figure does not even take into account all the ancillary operations to reduce pollution from wastewater (industrial, domestic or rainwater), via a network of de-pollution and pre-treatment plants and purification stations, which cost another €1.4 billion—this time, per year.
Since August 2023, several test swims have been organised, revealing the presence of too much bacteria in the river’s waters. The triathlon (July 30th and 31st and August 5th), marathon swimming (August 8th and 9th) and para triathlon events (September 1st and 2nd) are approaching. The plan is still for the athletes to swim in the Seine, but if the water quality is poor, no plan B has been drawn up.
Even environmentalists are wondering: what if all this is ultimately pointless and anti-ecological? The France Nature Environnement Ile-de-France association has revealed that the purification plants set up to speed up water purification operate with a chemical cleaning process “based on performic acid, a product that is highly bactericidal but dangerous to handle,” which releases active oxygen that is dangerous for the river’s flora and fauna. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
This sinister affair is fairly emblematic of a certain left-wing voluntarism, which claims to bend the elements to ideology without taking account of the facts or the resistance of reality.
On Wednesday, July 10th, Toulouse artist James Colomina was selling bottles labelled “Eau de Seine, finement polluée” (Seine water, finely polluted) for €10 each on the quayside to protest against the exorbitant cost of cleaning up the river. He explained on social media that his initiative was launched “to make the investment by the Mairie de Paris worthwhile.”
But apart from this light-hearted joke, few voices have been raised to denounce the gigantic waste. The French Left, always quick to call for more social welfare and to denounce “gifts to companies”, is surprisingly silent here on the use of public money.
On the Right, the protests are scarcely more vigorous. At a time when the Paris City Council is in debt to the tune of €7 to 10 billion, was it really essential to open up the spending tap even more? As for the use of the funds, a few figures will speak for themselves. It is common knowledge that the religious heritage of Paris is in a more than worrying state. The city owns 96 religious buildings in need of major restoration. The budget allocated to their upkeep under Anne Hidalgo’s 2020-2026 term of office is €150 million, whereas the estimated needs are €500 million over 20 years. How many roofs, how many statues, how many stained glass windows could have been saved from ruin by the euros that ended up submerged in the mud of the Seine?
€1.4 Billion Down the Drain: Paris Spends Big To Make Seine Swimmable
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo climbs the ladder after swimming in the Seine, in Paris on July 17, 2024, to demonstrate that the river is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics later this month.
Photo: JOEL SAGET / POOL / AFP
€1.4 billion: that’s how much it cost to clean the Augean stables—in other words, to clean up the Seine and make it safe for swimming in the run-up to the Olympic Games. How many more useful projects could have been carried out with such sums! And it is the Left that indulged in such financial waste. Where are the outraged souls, usually so quick to call for ever more social expenditures?
A few days ago, the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo staged her plunge into the Seine in front of a multitude of cameras, to mark the completion of the long clean-up of the river that runs through Paris, to make it safe for bathing—something that has not happened for decades. The Minister for Sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, also took part in the exercise. President Macron had also promised to take a plunge but found a good excuse to postpone his performance.
Anne Hidalgo had made swimming in the Seine one of her key arguments to legitimise the hosting of the Olympic Games in their city in the eyes of slightly sceptical Parisians. The clean-up would be a lasting legacy of the Games that all residents could enjoy in the future, with three bathing areas to be made available by 2025. The project, known as the “Water Quality and Bathing Plan,” was first put on the table in 2016, but was given a boost by the Olympic Games.
Despite the titanic efforts made, the results are still not there. But the mayor and empress of Paris has made up her mind: the cleaning must continue. Whatever the cost.
The promise of swimming has turned into a bottomless pit. Week after week, month after month, it soon became clear that cleaning the Seine was something of an impossibility. The sewage system in towns upstream of Paris is antiquated, and some of it flows directly into the river. The city of Paris was called upon to contribute, as well as the municipalities dotted along the river upstream of the capital, or bordering the Marne, the Seine’s main tributary: a colossal mobilisation.
The press has revealed the total cost of the operation: the 2016 plan was estimated at €1.4 billion, and this figure does not even take into account all the ancillary operations to reduce pollution from wastewater (industrial, domestic or rainwater), via a network of de-pollution and pre-treatment plants and purification stations, which cost another €1.4 billion—this time, per year.
Since August 2023, several test swims have been organised, revealing the presence of too much bacteria in the river’s waters. The triathlon (July 30th and 31st and August 5th), marathon swimming (August 8th and 9th) and para triathlon events (September 1st and 2nd) are approaching. The plan is still for the athletes to swim in the Seine, but if the water quality is poor, no plan B has been drawn up.
Even environmentalists are wondering: what if all this is ultimately pointless and anti-ecological? The France Nature Environnement Ile-de-France association has revealed that the purification plants set up to speed up water purification operate with a chemical cleaning process “based on performic acid, a product that is highly bactericidal but dangerous to handle,” which releases active oxygen that is dangerous for the river’s flora and fauna. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
This sinister affair is fairly emblematic of a certain left-wing voluntarism, which claims to bend the elements to ideology without taking account of the facts or the resistance of reality.
On Wednesday, July 10th, Toulouse artist James Colomina was selling bottles labelled “Eau de Seine, finement polluée” (Seine water, finely polluted) for €10 each on the quayside to protest against the exorbitant cost of cleaning up the river. He explained on social media that his initiative was launched “to make the investment by the Mairie de Paris worthwhile.”
But apart from this light-hearted joke, few voices have been raised to denounce the gigantic waste. The French Left, always quick to call for more social welfare and to denounce “gifts to companies”, is surprisingly silent here on the use of public money.
On the Right, the protests are scarcely more vigorous. At a time when the Paris City Council is in debt to the tune of €7 to 10 billion, was it really essential to open up the spending tap even more? As for the use of the funds, a few figures will speak for themselves. It is common knowledge that the religious heritage of Paris is in a more than worrying state. The city owns 96 religious buildings in need of major restoration. The budget allocated to their upkeep under Anne Hidalgo’s 2020-2026 term of office is €150 million, whereas the estimated needs are €500 million over 20 years. How many roofs, how many statues, how many stained glass windows could have been saved from ruin by the euros that ended up submerged in the mud of the Seine?
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