The great Seine River in Paris has a big problem. It has been seriously polluted. Around 360 tons of plastic are found in it every year. So there are even laws that do not let people swim in the water.
11-year-old Raphael wants to clean up the river so that people are able to swim in the river by July 2024. That is when the city will host the Olympic Games.
Cleaning the river is a big job. Raphael has done it nearly every weekend for the past two years. He fishes junk with his dad. They can catch a ton of rubbish in a single day and they have caught anything. The biggest thing Raphael found was a motorbike. It was so heavy that it took a team of people to pull it out.
Raphael learned about cleaning rivers from YouTube. In 2019, he found a video. It showed that people were fishing metal objects out of rivers. They used ropes tied to magnets(磁铁). That Christmas, Raphael asked his parents for help. He wanted some ropes, a hook(钩), and a powerful magnet. The magnet was very strong. It could attract(吸引) metal objects weighing more than a ton.
When he began, fishing for metal was just a lazy weekend activity. But Raphael soon saw just how much junk there was at the bottom of the river. He wanted to do more. "It became like a full-time job. "he said.
Last October, Raphael won an award for his efforts. He received the Medal of Paris. Raphael is confident about his progress in the last two years.
Cleaning the river is not easy for Raphael, but he won't give up. He hopes he can be one of the first to swim in the water once it is safe.
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