Paris prepares giant water reservoir ahead of 2024 Games
STORY: The primary goal is to have the Seine batheable by 2025, with the Paris Games boosting that aim, even though some sporting events were canceled last summer as health standards were not met after rare heavy rains and a sewer problem.
The city has been building a storage basin capable of holding 46,000 cubic meters of waste water to significantly reduce the risks of pollution in the Seine. It will now start to operate before the end of the month.
The water will be tested every day during the Olympics to make sure it will be safe for the triathlons and open water swimming in the Seine. The Games start on July 26.
Once the rain is collected in the Austerlitz basin - a monster, 30-meter deep structure the size of a dozen Olympic swimming pools - it will be moved through a tunnel beneath the train station to a treatment plant.
When the water meets the required health criteria it will then be poured into the Seine.
