50,000 cubic metres of wastewater pours into main Paris river

The city’s pumping system suffered a malfunction two months before the start of the Summer Olympics.

Around 50,000 cubic meters of sewage water has been dumped into the Seine River over the past several weeks, due to problems with the pumping system in a suburb to the northwest of Paris, local officials have said.

The incident occurred two months before the start of the Summer Olympics. The French authorities are rushing to clean up the river so that athletes can swim in it during triathlon events.

“There has been a major malfunction at the network that delivers the wastewater from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine to the treatment plant,” Mayor Laurent Brosse told La Gazette du Val d’Oise on Wednesday. He said that three pumps stopped working due to electrical failure and that temporary pumps were installed.

An estimated 50,000 cubic meters of wastewater has been released into the river since the incident, according to the administration of the Grand Paris Seine et Oise area, which includes Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Officials said that the discharge of contaminated water from the broken pumping system has been stopped.

The commune of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine is located around 24km (15 miles) from central Paris. Officials believe that particularly heavy seasonal rainfall caused damage to the equipment. Locals took to social media to complain about the foul smell coming from the river and reported seeing sanitary tissues and wipes floating in the water. Videos circulating on X (formerly Twitter) show brown water flowing into the river.

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Des eaux usées déversées dans la Seine après un dysfonctionnement des pompes dans les Yvelineshttps://t.co/6SSi7LZJen pic.twitter.com/UxP6sxYuLp

— Élément (@Exactweet) May 30, 2024

With the triathlon events set to kick off on June 30, the Paris authorities have invested €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) into renovating the city’s water infrastructure, including new water storage reservoirs and pumps. Despite their best efforts, however, the latest tests conducted by water charity Surfrider show that the levels of E. coli and the enterococci bacteria in the Seine are higher than allowed by sports federations and European bathing standards, France 24 reported on Wednesday.

In order to quell concerns, French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to take a swim in the river ahead of the Olympics.