After Anne Hidalgo in the Seine, Grégory Doucet in the Rhône? If the mayor of Lyon has not (yet) answered the question, he announced on Friday that a first day of swimming tests in the river was planned for June 30. This test will be “subject to very specific weather and safety conditions”, and will be carried out on the banks of the left bank of the Rhône, near its confluence with the Saône, the municipality specified in a press release.
Currently, swimming in the Rhône and the Saône is prohibited by prefectural decree in the Lyon metropolitan area, due to the dangerous nature of the river and its tributary, due to currents and river traffic.
In Lyon, the health quality of the waters of the Rhône is “mediocre”, according to a study by the “Zone Atelier Bassin du Rhône” bringing together research establishments under the supervision of the CNRS.
Its course in France presents a “contrasting situation throughout its course for toxic micropollutants (metals such as mercury or zinc, etc.), pesticides and other organic micropollutants (PCBs)”, according to this study published at the end of the 2000s.
A series of measures for a “freshness objective”
This experiment is part of a “freshness objective” plan designed to help “better cope with extreme heat” in a city marked last summer by several weeks of red and orange heatwaves, according to the same source.
Night-time opening of parks, free access to air-conditioned municipal museums, free cinema tickets for those with low incomes, extension of hours for municipal swimming pools, etc. the plan sets out around ten measures intended to support “increasing climate change”. The town hall is also planning, during the red alert period, a “night under the stars” experience in one of its public parks, with the establishment of a demarcated and supervised area open to sleeping bags.