When Rio Olympics’ 2016 visitors and athletes come to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next year to see the famous sporting events, one thing they probably shouldn’t do is drink the water. That’s because the country hasn’t been able to meet their goal of getting the city’s water system clean and sanitary, according to the mayor, Eduardo Paes.
The issue at hand is the Guanabara Bay, which is known for being full of both sewage and trash, and is also the place the 2016 Rio Olympics sailing events will be held. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 12 million inhabitants, yet they don’t have an adequate way to collect or treat sewage, or to collect trash, so much of the city’s water regions have raw sewage running through them, and it is something the mayor says they aren’t proud of.
The government has been trying to clean things up for over two decades, but it hasn’t made noticeable progress doing it. Since there is less than 500 days until the Games are to take place, the mayor said that it is highly unlikely that significant progress will be made before that time. Previously, the promise had been made to cut the pollution problem by at least 80 percent as to what gets into the bay and other waterways, but that goal has not been met.
The Rio Olympics 2016 athletes have also said they are concerned about the problems with the water supply, wondering if they can get sick if they fall into a canal or otherwise get any of the contaminated water on them during an event. Exposure to raw sewage and human waste material could potentially cause diseases like cholera, dysentery or Hepatitis A.
Paes answered those worries by telling them that the Rio Olympics 2016 sailing events are to happen in parts of the bay that are cleaner so they won’t have to be concerned about their safety. However, when biologists hired a helicopter to scan the area, they reported that they saw waste in the entire area, even where the events are supposed to be held. There were also oil slicks seen as well.
Another problem is that when it rains, the trash and sewage issue gets worse because more trash and sewage gets sent into the Bay from households in the area. Recent analysis of the last 10 years’ worth of data concerning the pollution in the Guanabara Bay showed the pollution levels were continuously spiking at levels higher than Brazilian pollution laws allow.
According to other reports, the inability to clean up the water is the only real glitch in the preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics’ Games. So far, items like a new metro line, longer bus routes, and the building of the Rio Olympics’ stadium are going as scheduled.
