Water pollution levels in Paris's River Seine are still much higher than allowed for bathing, data showed on Friday, one month before the Olympics in which the capital's landmark waterway is meant to be one of the swimming venues.
Updated data published on the city's website showed the concentrations of enterococci and E coli bacteria remained well above legal thresholds on Sunday at all four testing points along the river.
At the Alexandre III bridge, the planned triathlon swimming site, enterococci exceeded a concentration of 1000 colony-forming units per 100ml on Sunday, more than double the 400cfu/100ml limit set by European law. The E coli concentration was almost four times higher than permitted.
Water pollution levels spike in periods of heavy rain, which in recent weeks have also increased the flow of the river to about six times its seasonal average, Paris's mayoral service said on the website.
The French capital has been working on cleaning up the Seine so people can swim in it again, as was the case during the 1900 Paris Olympics. But a sewer problem last summer led to the cancellation of a pre-Olympics swimming event.
