At 19, Arthur will swim the 784 km of the Seine to raise awareness of water pollution

0



Arthur Germain will descend the 784 km of the Seine to raise environmental awareness – 20 minutes

  • Arthur Germain will have to cover an average of 15 km per day to complete the descent of the Seine in 52 days. In the evening, he will bivouack in the middle of nature.
  • The young man’s goal is to educate as many people as possible about water pollution.

They are still students or already in active life, volunteers, researchers, employees, on their own, have set up a company or an association. Thanks to them, the future will be better. 20 Minutes has decided to give a voice to young people under 30 whose actions have a beneficial effect on the world of tomorrow. The tenth part of this series with Arthur Germain, 19, swimmer and adventurer, who will independently descend the 784 km of the Seine, from its source to Le Havre, without assistance, to raise awareness of environmental issues.

He will be like a fish in water. At only 19 years old, Arthur germain took on the challenge of descending the 784 km of the Seine. Whoever defines himself as “swimmer and adventurer” will set off on Sunday June 6 from Source-Seine, in Côte-d’Or, to Le Havre, the mouth of the Seine. A 52-day journey in autonomy and without assistance. By taking up this “personal challenge”, the young man also intends to raise public awareness of water pollution. “It’s not pleasant to swim and have water bottles in your face,” he says.

On the program for his 52 days of swimming, 15 km of river to descend daily and nights under the stars in the middle of the forest “as close as possible to the water”. Arthur will also pull a 60 kg kayak in which there will be his provisions, clothes and something to bivouac. “I will just have to get some drinking water from the locals. They will understand that I cannot drink the water from the Seine. “The opportunity also to” take showers “.

Arthur fell into the water when he was just 2 years old. Since then, the son of Anne Hidalgo and the former socialist deputy
Jean-Marc Germain no longer came out. In 2018, at only 16 years old, he obtained the title of
youngest French swimmer to have crossed the English Channel by swimming. ” I needed to get out of the competition pools, to surpass myself and this idea was imposed on a whim. To get out of my comfort zone I wanted to take up this challenge “, he says, wearing a white T-shirt with the logo of his project “La Seine à la nage”.

Almost 1,600 trees can be planted thanks to him

The idea of ​​going down the Seine stems from his associative projects. Party in Senegal with the association The Reflections of Water, Arthur was marked by this experience “There was a lot of waste, oil in the water. It was an intense experience. It was so dirty that I told myself that it was impossible to have such water. “.

His time as a volunteer at Tara Océan or
Good planet have refined its awareness of the environment. In addition to the crowdfunding launched for his project, the swimmer is supported by Maif and Ovo Energy, “partners in line with my values”. The green energy supplier is committed to planting a tree in Ploërdut in Brittany for each kilometer traveled. That is to say a total of 1,548 trees.

Arthur wants this challenge to affect all generations because “everyone has to understand the process. I want to show that ecology has great meaning and is not punitive. People will change their way of life by seeing what is to be gained and not what is to be lost ”. To warn about water pollution, Arthur goes to schools. “I find it crazy that there are no courses where we raise awareness about the environmental cause. It is still very important. “.





Source link