Paris’s River Seine is declared unfit for swimming just a month before it’s due to host Olympics events and opening ceremony, with locals threatening a ‘mass defecation’ protest

The River Seine has been declared unfit for swimmers a month before the Paris Olympics, despite a £1.2 billion project to make the river safe.

Friday’s results showed the river, known for its charm and romance, still failed water quality tests.

The intention is that part of the opening ceremony, the open water swimming competition and the swimming part of the triathlon will take place here.

Parisians threatened to defecate in the river on June 23 in protest against the French government, but it is unclear whether such crimes were committed. They are angry that so much money has been spent on cleaning it up, with seemingly little result.

President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to swim in the river to prove its safety.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have vowed to swim in the river to ‘prove’ its safety

And in an effort to deter potential river polluters, the city of Paris placed toilets along the banks of the Seine, hoping people would opt for a more civilized form of relief.

There has been outrage about the water quality of the Seine for some time.

In April, a French water charity reported “alarming levels of pollution”, raising fears the river would not be ready in time.

The Surfrider Foundation took 14 samples from the Seine over a six-month period and all but one of the tests found the water to be potentially hazardous.

The measurements of E. coli and enterococci – bacteria that indicate the presence of feces and can cause serious illness – were found to be double and sometimes triple the maximum allowable amounts.

The charity sent an open letter to its stakeholders, highlighting that it has ‘increasing concerns about the quality of the Seine’ and ‘the risks athletes face when entering polluted water’.

In addition, last year a swimming test event for the Olympic Games was cancelled after water quality was found to be ‘below acceptable standards’.

The city’s sewer system can be overwhelmed by heavy rains, which can cause untreated sewage to flow into the river. Opponents of Surfrider’s findings point out that the samples were taken during one of the wettest winters in 30 years.

Parisian state official Marc Guillaume said Surfrider had “very little knowledge of this problem”, adding: “There is no point in carrying out tests in the Seine today and comparing them with what will happen next summer”.

“There has never been any question of opening the Seine for swimming all year round,” Guillaume continued.

Open water swimmer Leah Crisp revealed last week that she and her competitors were concerned about the race in the River Seine and hoped there was a ‘plan B’.

“Water quality continues to deteriorate due to adverse hydrological conditions: rain, high water levels, little sunshine, temperatures below seasonal standards and pollution upstream,” local authorities said.

French authorities have been working hard to ensure that swimming in the Seine is one of the lasting legacies of this summer’s Olympic Games. After all, swimming in the river has been prohibited since 1923.