Catherine Field: Europe Correspondent on the state of the Seine ahead of the Paris Olympics

The river Seine isn't as clean as officials would've hoped ahead of the Paris Olympics. 

Many have expressed concerns over the state of the waterway which will also play a major role in the opening ceremony, where teams will float downstream in barges. 

Europe correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that there's twice the maximum volume of e-coli in the water. 

She says nearly $2.4 billion has been spent trying to clean up the river in the past decade. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with Insed Eye Insurance Peace of Mind for
New Zealand Business put time.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Here from Field morning.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good morning, mate.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
How did that rehearsal go?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Wops, it didn't.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
It didn't did it?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
No, it didn't go.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Apparently the river sand is currently flowing at more than
five times its strength and a normal summer days, so
they couldn't get that full rehearsal out there first thing
Monday morning. The other thing that we've found out, Mike,
is it's not as clean as they would hope for.
The coli is around twice the maximum that we usually

(00:40):
have during this time and twice as much as it's
supposed to be for any Olympic swimming event. So it
seems that that what was it two point four billion
New Zealand dollars that the authorities have spent in the
last decade to clean up the storm and whitewater in
the scent has not quite worked out as much as

(01:02):
they would have liked. And so the big question now,
might you know, months to go before the Olympics starts,
will will they be able to get those boats down
the send for the opening ceremony and will the triathlon
actually be a dual a flon with only the running
and the cycling.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is there any level of panic at this point? Are
we still far enough out not to freak out yet?

Speaker 1 (01:25):
There's a little bit of panic, But I think some
of that comes from the fact that we've got the
elections coming up and there may well be a completely
new government in place, which means there might be a
new Ministry of the Interior. So the Ministry of the
Interior has said, look, you know, I'm just a figure head.
We've got this fantastic police force, got fantastic security forces.
Everything is ready to go. Don't worry about that. So

(01:47):
I think that's where the concerns are at the moment.
A few other things. They haven't got the little camp
in the wood of Vancene over to the east of
Paris properly built for the military to sleep, and that's
a bit of a concern. But I think the main
concern that I've seen just as last weekend has been
the weather. Summer has finally arrived. We're looking at temperatures

(02:09):
of thirty thirty five degrees and you look at some
of those stands that they're built place de la Concord,
the port Alexander tours around the Eiffel Tower. These stands
might have no covering their metal stands. People are going
to be sitting in them for a long time. And
you know everyone's worried about the athletes, what about the spectators?
This is what I say, quite right.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
So where are we at with the election and does
our ferend, mister Medella, play a big role in the
coming days?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
What he does? You know, it's only been a couple
of weeks that we've had this election campaign. Going Mike
and to telling the trees. That's been a bit like
speed dating. You know, you get all this stuff thrown
at you and you're just not really quite sure where
everyone's at. But yeah, Jordan Mandala, who's been really making
the running on this election campaign, the darling of the
far right, he had his first press conference today. He

(02:59):
didn't really I have to say. Every now and then
he was given a question that for a seasoned politician
would have just battered about. He just every time went
completely blank and moved on to the next question. But
we did get a bit of a bit of flesh
on the bones, things like your preference for French people
for jobs prohibiting dual nationals from serving insecurity and defense.

(03:23):
Uh another look at how easy it is for children
born on French soil to get citizenship of their parents
and foreigners. Cut energy tax. Not sure how that would
work given the you know, the current state of the
country's finances, and is also said that there's also going
to be massive cuts in the cost of living. So

(03:45):
how that's going to work, No one's quite sure. But
it does seem to be that the person that everyone
dislikes the most, Emmanuel Macron, is just as is detested
in the electorate, and so he's been paying a very
strange romike. He wrote a letter to the friend people yesterday. Yeah,
it's one way of getting it out there, isn't it.
So he said that he's heard the message and that

(04:07):
things will be different after these elections. But he's promised
to everyone that he will not resign. He will see
out his term until twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
All right, ketchups and casmin, I appreciate it very much.
Couple of rounds in that election, by the way, just
to keep you off to be and I knowe Michael Barnier,
remember Michael Barnier Exit Brexit. He reckons that Macron's driven
them to a frixit. This is immigration. He's ignored an
immigration and it's going to bite him in the bump.
Just before we leave Europe quickly. By the way, the
European Union yet again says Apple is in breach of

(04:37):
its Digital Markets Act it does not allow customers of
its app store to be steered to alternatives. The fees
Apple charges developers for the initial acquisition of the new
customers via the app store go beyond what is strictly necessary.
Also opened a new probe into Apple over whether some
of its rules around allowing third party app stores are
apps to be downloaded from websites complies with the DMA.
So the old battle between the EU and Apple rolls

(04:58):
on for another day. For more or from the mic
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