Sydney inventor Michel Fathallah drinks from polluted River Seine with help of Nuvoe Pod

The River Seine is so filthy, safety fears forced authorities to postpone an Olympic triathlon. But the state of the river didn’t stop a Sydney inventor sampling the water in front of horrified Parisians.

Parisians must have thought a Sydney inventor was “in-Seine” when he drank from a French river so filthy it was later deemed unfit for swimming, delaying the start of the Olympic men’s triathlon.

Michel Fathallah received more than a few funny looks when he approached the River Seine, filled his water bottle and promptly gulped down the contents.

But fast-forward four weeks and not only has the Glenfield resident survived, he’s escaped any hint of sickness.

He credits the stunt’s success to a new water purifying product called Nuvoe Pod, a so-called “germ-killing machine” he and co-founder Stuart May spent years developing in Sydney.

Mr Fathallah said he had been in Paris for his cousin’s wedding when Mr May suggested he drink from the river, an idea even his own family initially described as “crazy”.

Nuvoe founder Michel Fathallah, inset, drinks from the River Seine, which is so badly polluted the Olympic men’s triathlon had to be postponed. Pictures: AFP, supplied

After all, the river is infamous for being, as he puts it, “a cesspool of bacteria and faeces”.

While others were apprehensive, with the river’s E.Coli levels up to 10 times the acceptable level for swimming at that stage, Mr Fathallah put his faith in science.

Nuvoe founder Michel Fathallah. Picture: LinkedIn

After laboratory testing showed his company’s technology removed up to 99.99 per cent of germs and bacteria using UVC light, he said he was ready and willing to put his “life on the line” by drinking from the river with a Nuvoe Pod in his bottle.

“If you have a product, you’ve got to believe in it, right?” Mr Fathallah told this masthead.

He said Nuvoe had begun as an idea back in 2020, when the fledgling company ran a Kickstarter campaign to gauge whether the product would resonate with consumers.

Following positive feedback and years of development and manufacturing, it was released to crowdfunding backers in mid-2023 before going on general sale in recent weeks.

Nuvoe founder Michel Fathallah's family initially thought he was "crazy". Picture: LinkedIn

While Nuvoe bottles and purifying “pods” are now available on the company’s website, Mr Fathallah said the business was also in discussions with potential distributors.

He said Nuvoe’s purpose was to encourage decentralised water treatment, empowering people to treat their water “right before the point of consumption”.

French authorities threw billions of dollars at attempts to make the Seine safe for swimming before concerns over the state of the river prompted the postponement of the Olympic men’s triathlon, which kicked off a day late on Wednesday.

Mr Fathallah said by comparison, his $85 Nuvoe Pod had the water in a state fit for drinking in just one minute.

“You can purify water anywhere you are,” he said.