Buried Dream of Returning to La Seine: The Billion Dollar Operation and How It Determines The Fate of 2024 Olympics

by Rengganis Binar

The city of Paris has initiated an ambitious $1.5 billion operation to clean the historically polluted Seine River. Efforts to clean the Seine aren't new to Paris, with the first initiation implemented in 1990 by then Mayor of Paris later turned President of France Jacques Chirac; even then the efforts displayed were never of this scale (Walt, 2024). What could possibly be the reason behind undertaking this massive 30 year long effort and slamming a pressing deadline on it? Paris intends to take advantage of the 2024 Olympics to accelerate the process of cleaning the Seine, under the guise of completing it for the games’ opening ceremony. However, that is not all. They also intend to hold open water swimming and the triathlon there and for the first time in a century, swimmers will race in the waters of Seine.
, open water swimming was held in the Seine in 1900 when Paris hosted its first games. In 1924 however, their second time hosting, it was already made illegal to swim in the Seine because of high levels of fecal contamination and open water swimming could not be held in the same way (Palmer, 2024). It appears that Paris is trying to return the Seine’s condition to its former glory and finally being able to hold competitions in its waters once more. This rather ambitious goal, however, is not perceived well by the French. Despite the extraordinary amount put into the efforts to clean the Seine many are still skeptical about it, questioning the sustainability of rejuvenating the incredibly long river and even raising concerns about the economic prudence of hosting the games entirely.
The financial burden of hosting the Olympics isn’t breaking news. The history of the games shows a consistent pattern of lasting economic strain and damages on host cities with countries like China spending an estimated $52.7 billion for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Russia spending a whopping $59.7 billion for the 2014 Sochi Olympics (McBride et al., 2024). Both countries exceeded their budget of $20 billion and $10 billion respectively, similar to the 7 other hosts before and after them. Concerns of fund misappropriation have also been expressed by Parisians, saying that the much needed resources are being wasted on the games when it could be better spent on more pressing issues like shortage of labor and housing crisis (Stavrou, 2024). France has so far spent $9.7 billion out of their $9.5 billion budget on building the facilities needed for the games–including the efforts spent on the Seine. Despite city officials insisting the quality of the water has improved and that “there is no plan B” The Surfrider Foundation–a non-profit that has been conducting tests of the Seine waters– reported out of 14 samples taken from different points of the river in 2022, only 3 are deemed “sufficient” and all other samples contained E. coli and “pollution of fecal matter origin.” Because of this, Olympic swimming test events scheduled to be held last summer were canceled (France24, 2024). The non-profit even wrote an open letter advising Olympic stakeholders not to advance with the competition (Schad, 2024).
With the start of the Olympics nearing, tensions between city officials and the people of Paris grew. As an act of showing faith, President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged to swim in the Seine themselves to prove the cleanliness of it on June 23rd. This promise sparked a rather unique movement amongst the French. Dubbed “Je Chie Dans La Seine Le 23 Juin” or “I Poop in the Seine on June 23” the protest has gained momentum across social media platforms, inviting people to quite literally defecate in the most romantic river in the world (Stavrou, 2024) Claiming to raise awareness about the sustainability of cleaning the river and the excessive spending on the games, the protest has succeeded in catching the attention of many. All eyes are now on the city of love. With only less than 100 days, the question remains; will Paris be able to return the Seine to its people for the Olympics? Or will said dream whither like it has done in the last 30 years?

REFERENCES
Paris, V. W. /. (2023, March 13). Inside the billion-dollar effort to clean up the seine. Time. https://time.com/6261729/seine-clean-up-paris-olympics-2024/
Palmer, B. (2023, December 21). The Seine’s starring role in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. PCMA. https://www.pcma.org/seine-starring-role-paris-2024-olympic-games/
McBride, J., & Manno, M. (2021, December 14). The economics of hosting the Olympic Games. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/economics-hosting-olympic-games
Stavrou, A. (2024, June 11). Why Parisians are planning “s*** flashmob” in protest against Filthy River Seine. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-olympics-seine-protest-b2560483.html
Wires, N. (2024, February 26). Paris organisers cast doubt on holding olympic swimming events in the seine. France 24. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240226-paris-holds-its-breath-for-olympic-swimming-events-in-murky-seine
Schad, T. (2024, April 12). Paris olympics slated to include swimming the Seine. the problem? it’s brimming with bacteria. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/04/09/paris-olympics-2024-seine-river-bacteria-concerns/73260956007/