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.
