There's a fresh wave of concerns about the water quality in the Seine for the Paris Olympics.
A training session for the Olympic triathlon event has been cancelled due to unsafe levels of pollution, with heavy rain from the opening ceremony reviving recent fears.
UK correspondent Gavin Grey says tests have confirmed the water is not up to scratch for swimming in.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now we go to the UK. Kevin grag joins us.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello givin, good morning, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I would never swim in the scene, would you.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
That's certainly not at the moment. The athletes for the
Olympics were scheduled to swim in the sane in fact
around now, but a joint decision from representatives of World
Triathlon and the organization responsible for carrying out water quality
tests has canceled the swim for health reasons, and the
same decision, of course, was reached yesterday. It comes just
(00:31):
that twenty four hour period after the men's triathlon race
in the first competitive open water swimming event to be
held at Paris in twenty twenty four. But I'm afraid
the tests revealed water quality levels that frankly were not
up to scratch. Why well, because France and in particular
Paris has what's called a combined sewer system, and that
(00:52):
means both wastewater and storm water flow through the same pipes.
So when there's here the rainfall as a course there
was at the opening ceremony, those pipes reach capacity and
wastewater including sewage, overflows into the River Saine. Instead of
being treated in a treatment plant, and so consequently, I'm
(01:13):
afraid the river Riversaine is at the moment just simply
not fit with frankly a lot of fecal matter in it,
not particularly pleasant for the swimmers. Embarrassing because France has
spent a staggering amount of money roughly two and a
half billion New Zealand dollars in a bid to improve
(01:33):
water quality ahead of the Games.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now, Kevin, can I just say that heaving wastewater and
water combined in a combined system doesn't just have it
in Paris from France. That happens all around New Zealand,
including in Auckland, New Zealand, you know. And so my son,
who happens to work as a water quality engineer dealing
with wastewater, said, gee, is that rain who's watching the
opening ceremony when that's not good? And said, why is that? Well,
(01:59):
there's going to be a whole crep going straight to
the sin right now. And I think I cannot imagine.
I kind of imagine just the naive, foolhardy hope that
was inside the organizers and the city's minds that they
could spend so much money thinking they could do that
without actually completely revamping the entire stormwater system of Paris.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
But who And I'm afraid London has the same system.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Too, so yeah, yeah, so dumb call. But there we go.
All right, the UK government is well, apparently, according to
your new chancellor, has broken broken and so you're now
on a money saving drive.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We're on a money saving drive. And it's very interesting
this because both the Conservative Party who got ousted and
the Labor Party, the incoming party in our UK general
election back on the fourth of July, both said well,
we're going to stick to the current schedule of spending
and taxing, and there were lots of promises about no,
we're not going to tax this, No, we're not going
(02:54):
to tax this. Well, I think we're about to see
some tax rises now because the new government is claiming
there is a massive forty five billion New Zealand dollar
black hole in the finances of this country. And that's
not a one off, Andrew, that's every year. And so
to get around this, we expect the new chancellor, the
first female Chancellor of the UK, Rachel Reeves to unveil
(03:16):
a massive round of cuts to basically road rail projects,
a reduction on spending, an external consultant and also cuts
to public sector spending and waste. But sure apparently going
to accuse the previous government of covering up these shortfalls
and then running away, so pretty strong language which the
(03:37):
Conservative Party Rishie sou Next Party have completely denied. They say,
we warned you labor will rise taxes and indeed, now
look they are going to raise these taxes and we
warned you they were going to do it. So lots
of backbiting, backwards and forwards here. Incidentally, one of the
big projects that I think is probably going to be
canceled is the road tunnel under Stonehead, the World Heritage
(04:01):
site and the ancient well artwork or artifact, and gosh,
you know what, lots of new hospitals won't be built
as well at this moment. So it really is going
to be a massive, massive cut to expenditure.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And the similar thing happened here in New Zealand as well,
except we have our political allegiances around around about face,
you know, and that we're we've ended out with the
right wing government complaining about the left wing government when
we are broken broken and we need to make cuts,
et cetera. But we haven't talked about text risers. So yeah,
funny odd thing. Now speaking to me, you mentioned Richard
(04:37):
Richie Sunk, and of course he's not continuing. Who would
want them? But who wants the job? Because you know,
people are starting to talk about the death of the
Conservative Party.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yes, indeed they are, and so they need a new, bright,
shiny leader, somebody that's going to attract support, not just
among MPs, after all, there aren't that many other Conservative
MPs left, but among the wider public of course. And
so the first round, the deadline to get your nomination in, Andrew, well, no,
you come your nomination in too become the next lude
(05:10):
to the Conservative Party closes at two thirty local time.
That's six seven hours ahead really from now. And we
now learn that perhaps one of the favorites, one of
the outsiders, and yet one of the favorites is the
odd sort of combination that a lady called Kemy Badenock
has thrown her hat into the ring. She is a
(05:33):
forty four year old and she took her first jobs
it were in government with the Boris Johnson and she
really has been very popular among Conservative Party members and
it is they who had the final say on who
replaces them. So she joins the whole crowd now of
half a dozen others looking to take on the job.
(05:54):
But there may be more throwing the hat into the
ring before the deadline at two thirty local time Happy
and so consequently this is going to be an interesting one.
She has said she's probably going to want to leave
the European Convention on Human Rights that is massively controversial
within the country and the party. Some Conservatives say it
is the only way to control immigration to leave that convention.
(06:18):
Others are saying it'll damage our international reputation and legal protections.
And she's also saying, you know, we need to concentrate
on what we stand for and a few of the
basics rather than do lots of things. Not very well.
But the Conservative Party only one hundred and twenty one MPs. Now, gosh,
they really were pretty much slaughtered back at the election time,
(06:42):
and so the question is how much infighting will there be.
I do think one big mistake they've made, Andrew, is
they're not actually going to announce the winner until believed
or not November, and that gives us the opportunity to
witness four months of in fighting through yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Kevin Grave from the UK, I thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
News Talks it B from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Right now we go to the UK. Kevin grag joins us.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello givin, good morning, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I would never swim in the scene, would you.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
That's certainly not at the moment. The athletes for the
Olympics were scheduled to swim in the sane in fact
around now, but a joint decision from representatives of World
Triathlon and the organization responsible for carrying out water quality
tests has canceled the swim for health reasons, and the
same decision, of course, was reached yesterday. It comes just
(00:31):
that twenty four hour period after the men's triathlon race
in the first competitive open water swimming event to be
held at Paris in twenty twenty four. But I'm afraid
the tests revealed water quality levels that frankly were not
up to scratch. Why well, because France and in particular
Paris has what's called a combined sewer system, and that
(00:52):
means both wastewater and storm water flow through the same pipes.
So when there's here the rainfall as a course there
was at the opening ceremony, those pipes reach capacity and
wastewater including sewage, overflows into the River Saine. Instead of
being treated in a treatment plant, and so consequently, I'm
(01:13):
afraid the river Riversaine is at the moment just simply
not fit with frankly a lot of fecal matter in it,
not particularly pleasant for the swimmers. Embarrassing because France has
spent a staggering amount of money roughly two and a
half billion New Zealand dollars in a bid to improve
(01:33):
water quality ahead of the Games.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now, Kevin, can I just say that heaving wastewater and
water combined in a combined system doesn't just have it
in Paris from France. That happens all around New Zealand,
including in Auckland, New Zealand, you know. And so my son,
who happens to work as a water quality engineer dealing
with wastewater, said, gee, is that rain who's watching the
opening ceremony when that's not good? And said, why is that? Well,
(01:59):
there's going to be a whole crep going straight to
the sin right now. And I think I cannot imagine.
I kind of imagine just the naive, foolhardy hope that
was inside the organizers and the city's minds that they
could spend so much money thinking they could do that
without actually completely revamping the entire stormwater system of Paris.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
But who And I'm afraid London has the same system.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Too, so yeah, yeah, so dumb call. But there we go.
All right, the UK government is well, apparently, according to
your new chancellor, has broken broken and so you're now
on a money saving drive.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We're on a money saving drive. And it's very interesting
this because both the Conservative Party who got ousted and
the Labor Party, the incoming party in our UK general
election back on the fourth of July, both said well,
we're going to stick to the current schedule of spending
and taxing, and there were lots of promises about no,
we're not going to tax this, No, we're not going
(02:54):
to tax this. Well, I think we're about to see
some tax rises now because the new government is claiming
there is a massive forty five billion New Zealand dollar
black hole in the finances of this country. And that's
not a one off, Andrew, that's every year. And so
to get around this, we expect the new chancellor, the
first female Chancellor of the UK, Rachel Reeves to unveil
(03:16):
a massive round of cuts to basically road rail projects,
a reduction on spending, an external consultant and also cuts
to public sector spending and waste. But sure apparently going
to accuse the previous government of covering up these shortfalls
and then running away, so pretty strong language which the
(03:37):
Conservative Party Rishie sou Next Party have completely denied. They say,
we warned you labor will rise taxes and indeed, now
look they are going to raise these taxes and we
warned you they were going to do it. So lots
of backbiting, backwards and forwards here. Incidentally, one of the
big projects that I think is probably going to be
canceled is the road tunnel under Stonehead, the World Heritage
(04:01):
site and the ancient well artwork or artifact, and gosh,
you know what, lots of new hospitals won't be built
as well at this moment. So it really is going
to be a massive, massive cut to expenditure.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And the similar thing happened here in New Zealand as well,
except we have our political allegiances around around about face,
you know, and that we're we've ended out with the
right wing government complaining about the left wing government when
we are broken broken and we need to make cuts,
et cetera. But we haven't talked about text risers. So yeah,
funny odd thing. Now speaking to me, you mentioned Richard
(04:37):
Richie Sunk, and of course he's not continuing. Who would
want them? But who wants the job? Because you know,
people are starting to talk about the death of the
Conservative Party.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yes, indeed they are, and so they need a new, bright,
shiny leader, somebody that's going to attract support, not just
among MPs, after all, there aren't that many other Conservative
MPs left, but among the wider public of course. And
so the first round, the deadline to get your nomination in, Andrew, well, no,
you come your nomination in too become the next lude
(05:10):
to the Conservative Party closes at two thirty local time.
That's six seven hours ahead really from now. And we
now learn that perhaps one of the favorites, one of
the outsiders, and yet one of the favorites is the
odd sort of combination that a lady called Kemy Badenock
has thrown her hat into the ring. She is a
(05:33):
forty four year old and she took her first jobs
it were in government with the Boris Johnson and she
really has been very popular among Conservative Party members and
it is they who had the final say on who
replaces them. So she joins the whole crowd now of
half a dozen others looking to take on the job.
(05:54):
But there may be more throwing the hat into the
ring before the deadline at two thirty local time Happy
and so consequently this is going to be an interesting one.
She has said she's probably going to want to leave
the European Convention on Human Rights that is massively controversial
within the country and the party. Some Conservatives say it
is the only way to control immigration to leave that convention.
(06:18):
Others are saying it'll damage our international reputation and legal protections.
And she's also saying, you know, we need to concentrate
on what we stand for and a few of the
basics rather than do lots of things. Not very well.
But the Conservative Party only one hundred and twenty one MPs. Now, gosh,
they really were pretty much slaughtered back at the election time,
(06:42):
and so the question is how much infighting will there be.
I do think one big mistake they've made, Andrew, is
they're not actually going to announce the winner until believed
or not November, and that gives us the opportunity to
witness four months of in fighting through yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Kevin Grave from the UK, I thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
News Talks it B from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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