The Villette basin looks like a jacuzzi at the end of summer. At the foot of the Crimean Bridge, in the 19th centurymy district of Paris, the water is boiling along the entire width of the Ourcq canal. A delicate attention on the part of the organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (JO) for the swimmers who will take part in the EDF Aqua Challenge (5 km for the best trained) on Saturday 14 September? Not exactly. This “bubble curtain”, presented by the Paris City Council on Thursday 12 September, is a new device to deal with the increase in waste of all kinds (aquatic algae, packaging, bottles, cans, plastic bags, etc.) floating in the water. air.
The three boats belonging to the City of Paris that clean the canals of the capital (about 10 kilometres between the Ourcq, Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin canals) collect about 180 cubic metres of waste each year. This represents the content of 530 yellow containers. “If we piled them up, the height would be almost twice that of the Eiffel Tower”“This is the measure of the extent of the pollution,” says Dan Lert, a member of the Paris City Council responsible for ecological transition and president of the Paris Water Authority.
The way the bubble curtain works is fairly simple. Four tubes placed at the bottom of the canal release compressed air, forming a bubble curtain that directs the waste towards the shore and prevents it from dispersing, before being collected by a cleaning boat. The curtain operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with boats passing through five to six times a week.
An experiment conducted in Amsterdam
“It is about preventing waste from dispersing and capturing it as soon as possible before it sinks”explains Léa Vasa, a consultant responsible for the canals, who was convinced by the experiment carried out in Amsterdam, the city with 75 kilometres of canals. This first bubble curtain was placed at a distance of 100 metres. “strategic location” : very close to the Joinville market. The wind regularly blows plastic bags and other waste into the canal. All the waste found in the water comes from the land”remembers Léa Vasa.
Another black spot has been identified: Saturday night picnics along the busy Canal Saint-Martin. “We want to raise awareness among the population by making waste visible”adds François Dagnaud, mayor of 19mywhich aims to transform its district into “ “zero waste territory”. At the foot of the Crimean Bridge, a panel recalls the objectives of the bubble curtain, including that of “fight against the presence of plastic waste in rivers and ultimately in seas and oceans.” Between 100 and 200 tonnes of plastic waste arrive in the Seine Bay each year, with 500 kilos being dumped into the sea every day, according to data from the public interest group Sena-Aval, which is interested in the ecological functioning of the Seine estuary in relation to human activities.
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