Will the Seine be safe for the summer Olympics?

Emmanuel Macron’s promise to strip off to his Speedos and swim in the Seine to prove it is safe for athletes has yet to be delivered. The Olympic Games commence in July and the river remains essentially a sewer. Although the water quality is supposedly getting better as the rains are relenting, Macron is wise not to hurry.

In addition to fears that the Paris games will attract terrorist attacks, there is the now the unpleasant prospect of athletes being infected with norovirus and other unfortunate ailments of the intestinal tract. Not that London can offer any lessons after the Boat Race in which crews were required to compete in filthy water with predictable consequences.

The Surfrider Foundation, a water-focused NGO, has been testing the Seine since last September and has so far completed 14 samplings of water quality under the Alexandre III and Alma Bridges, where Olympic open-water swimming events are planned.