Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil still full of sewage in time for Olympics.

In its 2009 bid, Brazil pledged to remove 80% of the sewage in the waterways by 2016 and spend $4 billion building sewage treatment plants to achieve that goal.

• Since 2009, only $170 million have been spent and the waters remain full of trash, dead bodies, rotaviruses and drug-resistant ‘superbacteria’.

• “‘Foreign athletes will literally be swimming in human crap, and they risk getting sick from all those microorganisms,’ said Dr. Daniel Becker, a local pediatrician who works in poor neighborhoods.”

• Many of the beaches remain “unsuitable” for human activity.

• The advice to the marathon swimmers, sailors and windsurfers competing: “ Keep your mouth closed.”

Sources:

- “There's still lots and lots of poop in the water at the Rio Olympics,” 26 July 2016 accessible at http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/international/ct-poop-water-rio-olympics-20160726-story.html.

- “Keep Your Mouth Closed: Aquatic Olympians Face a Toxic Stew in Rio,” 26 July 2016 accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/world/americas/brazil-rio-water-olympics.html?_r=0.