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

French officials have inaugurated a huge storage basin meant to keep cleaner the River Seine, which is to be the venue for marathon swimming at the Paris Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.

Basin can hold up to 20 Olympic swimming pools worth of dirty water to treat

People looking at a water storage basin.
The Austerlitz wastewater and rainwater storage basin, seen above in Paris on Thursday, is intended to make the Seine swimmable during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Antonin Utz/AFP via Getty Images)

French officials have inaugurated a huge storage basin meant to keep cleaner the River Seine, which is to be the venue for marathon swimming at the Paris Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.

Sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera praised Paris' ability "to provide athletes from all over the world with an exceptional setting on the Seine for their events."

The giant hole 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.

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