The Seine’s Olympic comeback: A gigantic clean-up mission of the Seine River — setting France back no less than USD 1.5 bn — has just taken place in Paris ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games, where the opening ceremony and three swimming events are expected to take place on the waters. National Geographic has taken a deep dive into the ins and outs of the plan.

The aim is to make the river swimmable once more: Since medieval times, the Seine has been a dumping ground for human and industrial waste, and the ensuing pollution and traffic have prevented Parisians from taking to the waters for over a century. Now, Mayor Anne Hidalgo plans to take a dip to prove it’s safe, even though recent tests still show some bacterial concerns.

Efforts to clean it began in the 1990s, and there are some signs of success: Tidy-up efforts from the Greater Paris Sanitation Authority have brought back 36 fish species from nearly none in the 1970s. Improved water quality now supports diverse aquatic life — even kingfishers are nesting by the river again.

Modern engineering feats to keep the Seine safe: Paris has built a giant stormwater tank near Austerlitz to prevent sewage overflows into the Seine during heavy rains. This engineering marvel is key to maintaining the river’s newfound cleanliness and ensuring it’s safe for Olympic swimmers.

Did someone say sharks in the Seine? Netflix’s recent release, Under Paris, which tells the tale of mutant sharks in the Seine, may be a purely fictional account, though Nat Geo explains that the brochet (pike) is a real-life inhabitant of the river today. A predator with 700 teeth, Sandrine Armirail, director of the Maison de la Pêche et de la Nature, an environmental education center, has dubbed it the “shark of the river.”

If that hasn’t swayed you… Public swimming spots will open by 2025 for locals and visitors to cool off and enjoy the river, authorities have said.

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