Paris inaugurates giant water storage basin to clean up the River Seine for Olympic swimming

PARIS (AP) — French officials inaugurated on Thursday a huge water storage basin meant to help clean up the River Seine, set to be the venue for marathon swimming at the Paris Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.

Sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra praised Paris' ability “to provide athletes from all over the world with an exceptional setting on the Seine for their events.”

Last year, swimming test events had to be canceled due to poor water quality. One reason was heavy rains that overwhelmed the city's old sewers, causing a mix of rainwater and untreated sewage to flow into the Seine and leaving safety standards unmet.

The giant reservoir dug next to Paris’ Austerlitz train station aims to collect excess rainwater and prevent bacteria-laden wastewater from entering the Seine.

It can hold the equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming pools of dirty water that will now be treated rather than being spat raw through storm drains into the river.

“We are on time," the prefect of the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, said. “The beginning of the Games will coincide with water quality allowing competition. That’s a tremendous collective success.”

Paris mayor Anne Hildago promised she would herself swim in the Seine before the Olympics — possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron.

The new storage basin “guarantees” that water can be stored even during severe storms, and will help water levels to "return to normal as quickly as possible,” she said.

The opening of the basin is the latest step toward a cleaner river and comes as part of a series of newly-built facilities, including a water treatment plant in Champigny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, that was inaugurated last month.

During the Olympics, water will be tested at 3 a.m. each day to determine whether events can go ahead as planned. If results were not up to the standards, events could be delayed by a few days, organizers said.

The estimated cost of the cleanup efforts amount to 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion), paid by the state and local authorities.

“For more than ten years already, we’ve seen a very significant improvement of the Seine water quality and our river’s fishes and wildlife are back,” Hidalgo said.

About 35 fish species are now living in the Paris section of the river, up from only three in the 1970s, when waters were extremely polluted due to nearby industrial activities.

For decades, the Seine was used mainly as a waterway to transport goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming there has, with some exceptions, been illegal since 1923.

Paris officials are planning to open several bathing sites to the general public in the summer, starting from next year.

The River Seine also is to be at the heart of the grandiose opening ceremony for the Olympics that will see over 200 athletes' delegations parade on more that 80 boats in central Paris.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

AP journalists Oleg Cetinic and Masha Macpherson contributed to the story.

The Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is seen during its inauguration Thursday, May 2, 2024 in Paris. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

The Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is seen during its inauguration Thursday, May 2, 2024 in Paris. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)

A man walks in the Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, during its inauguration Thursday, May 2, 2024. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)

A man walks in the Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, during its inauguration Thursday, May 2, 2024. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)

Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo, left, and President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee Tony Estanguet the Austerlitz inaugurate the wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, Thursday, May 2, 2024. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)

Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo and other officials attend the inauguration of the Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, which is intended to make the Seine river swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, Thursday, May 2, 2024. The works underground next to Paris' Austerlitz train station are part of a 1.5 billion euro effort to clean up the Seine so it can host marathon swimming and triathlon events at the July 26-Aug 11 Summer Games and be opened to the general public for swimming from 2025. (Stephane de Sakutin, Pool via AP)

ROUEN, France (AP) — French police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early on Friday, the latest apparent act in a storm of antisemitism roiling France amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Officers were alerted early Friday morning that smoke was rising from the synagogue and came face to face with the man when they got there, the national police information service said. It said the man surged toward officers with a knife and a metal bar. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said. Police said they had not yet identified the man.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on the social media site X that the armed individual was “clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue.”

He congratulated officers for “their reactivity and their courage.”

Tensions and anger have grown in France over the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic acts have surged in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.

Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the man is thought to have climbed onto a trash container and thrown “a sort of Molotov cocktail” inside the synagogue, starting a fire and causing “significant damage.”

“When the Jewish community is attacked, it's an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens," he said.

“It’s a fright for the whole nation,” he added.

Frédéric Desguerre, a regional police union official, told broadcaster BFM-TV that the man hurled the metal bar he was carrying at the officers and pulled out a long kitchen knife from one of his sleeves.

“He moved toward them with a determined air, quite violent,” he said.

Desguerre, of the Unité police union, said the officer fired five shots after warning the man to stop moving.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this month that the sharp spike in antisemitic acts in France that followed the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel has continued into this year.

Authorities registered 366 antisemitic acts in the first three months of 2024, a 300% increase over the same period last year, Attal said. More than 1,200 antisemitic acts were reported in the last three months of 2023 — which was three times more than in the whole of 2022, he said.

“We are witnessing an explosion of hatred,” he said.

Leicester reported from Paris.

French policemen stand the synagogue in Rouen, France, Friday, May 17, 2024. French police have shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen. (AP Photo/Oleg Cetinic)

A police car is parked in front of the synagogue in Rouen, France, Friday, May 17, 2024. French police have shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen. (AP Photo/Oleg Cetinic)