In Toulouse, the six million liters of the Nakache swimming pool recycled
First in Toulouse: water from the Nakache swimming pool, closed after the summer season, is reused to clean the streets and water green spaces.
Faced with an exceptional situation, a new idea. And that goes to the agents of the sports department of the town hall of Toulouse. Since Sunday, as every year during the last weekend of August, the huge summer swimming pool of the Alfred Nakache nautical park, on the island of Ramier in Toulouse, has closed its doors. What if all this water, which is normally drained into the wastewater network after being dechlorinated, was recycled? This is what the agents proposed and this is what has become reality since Thursday, after the four days needed for the chlorine to evaporate.
Sweepers and washers for the road network, tank trucks for green spaces and the sports department… One after the other, the vehicles, with the help of a long pipe immersed in the basin, pump the water which, in a few days, quickly turned greenish. It will therefore be used to clean the streets and water certain green spaces.
It is a “virtuous” initiative, underlined this Friday Laurence Arribagé, deputy mayor in charge of sports and swimming pools. 150 meters long and 50 wide, the large art deco basin built in the 1930s by the architect Jean Montariol contains 6,100,000 litres. The paddling pool, with a diameter of 50 meters, is also concerned. “The operation is called to be renewed”, continued the elected, even extended to the other basins of the city.
The prefectural decree taken in August in the context of the drought prohibits the emptying of swimming pools (but not this operation). This explains, for example, that the Bellevue Nordic swimming pool is still open.
130,000 admissions this summer
Drought and heat wave have particularly undermined the new plantations carried out by the town hall. And François Chollet, delegated councilor and responsible for sustainable development in the Métropole, fears losses even though the municipality has undertaken to green the city, in particular within the framework of the plan 100,000 trees by 2030. Nakache will undoubtedly limit the breakage. The town hall also offered firefighters to come and help themselves if they wish.
With repeated heat waves, the Nakache swimming pool ran at full speed. The sports department counted 130,000 admissions for 80 days of opening. This is much more than last year with 72,000 admissions, but it is true that the health pass was then in force.
The operation of what was once the largest basin in Europe represents a technical feat to maintain, despite the crowds, and in hot weather, water quality within the standards. Nakache had to close three days, in part, in the season for this chlorine issue and an incident related to a pump.