PARIS, FRANCE — New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno toured Paris’s Austerlitz Stormwater Basin on Thursday, meeting with city officials to learn about innovative approaches to managing heavy rainfall and improving drainage infrastructure. The visit resulted in an enthusiastic agreement from Paris officials to collaborate with New Orleans on stormwater management solutions.
Completed in 2024 at a cost of approximately $98 million, the massive underground facility can temporarily store 13.2 million gallons of water during heavy rain events, more than any individual stormwater retention basin currently built or under construction in New Orleans. By holding excess water, the basin gives Paris’s sewer system time to catch up, preventing untreated sewage and stormwater from overflowing into the Seine River.
New Orleans is also making major investments in stormwater retention, including water gardens and underground storage projects like the approximately 4-million-gallon basin being developed at the former Mercy Hospital site. While Paris’s primary goal is preventing river pollution, New Orleans uses retention basins to give its drainage and pumping systems time to catch up, helping prevent flooding of homes, streets and businesses.
Mayor Moreno expressed particular interest in learning more about Paris’s use of modeling and predictive technology to anticipate major rain events and manage its water and sewer systems. These technologies could provide valuable insights as New Orleans continues working to improve its drainage system.
As a result of the visit, Paris officials enthusiastically agreed to pursue technical collaboration with the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the City’s infrastructure team to share expertise and explore stormwater management technologies and solutions.
“Tremendously grateful to the team from the City of Paris for providing us insight into some of their remarkable infrastructure achievements. In New Orleans, we too are making major investments in stormwater retention, but we don’t have anything quite like this,” said Mayor Moreno. “I’m also particularly interested in learning more about how Paris uses modeling and predictive technology to prepare for and manage heavy rainfall. I’m pleased that Paris officials have enthusiastically agreed to collaborate with our team so we can explore new approaches that could help us better protect our neighborhoods from flooding. This is about learning what works, building partnerships and bringing solutions home to New Orleans.”
Video of the Mayor’s visit can be found here: Mayor’s Paris Visit