Expert gives devastating verdict on water quality in Seine
To ensure the quality of the Seine's water is top-notch, organizers of the Paris Olympics claim, and allow athletes to swim in it. However, one expert has serious doubts. He criticizes the outdated measurement methods used by those in charge.
Was the Seine clean enough for elite athletes to compete for Olympic medals in it? Paris and the Olympic organizers say yes. But Dan Angelescu of the company Fluidion has serious doubts. His company has been analyzing the Seine's water quality for years using state-of-the-art methods, he says, even at the locations where triathletes have been racing in recent days.
"Our measurements show that the water quality on no competition day met the World Triathlon 'sufficient' limit," Angelescu told Spiegel in an interview.
The Olympic organizers had decided to start the athletes based on their own data and the valid limits. Unlike his company, the city measures using outdated methods and follows an outdated set of rules, Angelescu says. Due to their measurement methods, the city is "blind" to a large portion of the bacterial load in the Seine.
Measurement method "not reliable enough for the Seine"
Interestingly, there is already an official cooperation between the city and Fluidion: The company analyzes the water quality at the public bathing spot La Villette on behalf of the city hall. However, the city explicitly did not want to work with Fluidion for the Olympics, Angelescu says.
Moreover, the data that Fluidion uploads to its own website as part of an "open source" project is not used by those in charge. The Paris Media Centre stated in this context that Fluidion's measurement method is "not reliable and accurate enough for the Seine." Angelescu is puzzled by this and accuses the city of ignoring science.
Despite Fluidion's findings indicating that the water quality on no competition day during the recent triathlons met the World Triathlon's 'sufficient' limit, the Olympic organizers have chosen to rely on their own data and the valid limits for the swimming events during the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris. Interestingly, the city of Paris and its officials have dismissed Fluidion's measurement method as not reliable and accurate enough for the Seine, prompting criticism from the company's representative, Dan Angelescu.
