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 In the neon green waters around the site of the future Olympic
Park, the average fecal pollution rate is 78 times that of the
Brazilian government's "satisfactory" limit — and 195 times the
level considered safe in the U.S. Nearly 70 percent of Rio's sewage
goes untreated, meaning runoff from its many slums and poor
neighborhoods drain into waters soon to host some of the world's
best athletes.
Unless Brazil makes headway in cleaning up its waters, experts warn
the Summer Games could pose health risks to athletes and mar what
officials hope will be their global showcase event. Instead of the
soaring vistas of Sugarloaf Mountain, the world could instead see
old couches in the bay and tons of dead fish floating atop a city
lake.
Rio's Olympic committee has pledged in writing that the pollution
problems will be fixed, and many had hoped the Olympics would force
authorities to tackle decades of neglect and poor planning that have
blighted waterways.
Leonardo Gryner, chief operating officer of Rio's organizing
committee, has acknowledged the extent of the water quality problem.
But he said projects were "well advanced" to make good on the city's
commitment to reduce 80 percent of the pollution flowing into the
bay, where sailing and wind surfing events are to be held.
With just 2½ years to go before the games, however, experts say
cleanup efforts are moving at a snail's pace and haven't
significantly improved capacity in sewage treatment plants or hooked
up more of the city's 6 million residents.
"The high concentrations of untreated human waste means there are
pathogens and disease-causing organisms in the water," said Dr.
Casey Brown, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "If I were going to take
part, I would make sure all my shots were up to date."
Tests show the problems are still severe in several of the
competition venues.
At the site of the Olympic Park, in the Barra neighborhood,
untreated human waste flows from nearby condominiums and sprawling
shantytowns, presenting an immediate health hazard, according to Rio
de Janeiro Environment Ministry documents examined by The Associated
Press. Pollution fills many of the waterways in Barra, where about
half the Olympic events will be held.
In the waters just off Copacabana beach, the measurement of fecal
coliform bacteria spiked to 16 times the Brazilian government's
satisfactory level as recently as three weeks ago, bad news for the
marathon swimmers and triathletes set to compete there.
The Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas often experiences huge fish die-offs
that leave its surface blanketed with tons of dead fish. Rowing and
canoeing events are set to take place on the briny lake.
Another entrenched problem is the 148-square-mile
(383-square-kilometer) Guanabara Bay, where the only exit for foul,
polluted waters is through a narrow opening onto the Atlantic Ocean.
Home to a thriving artisanal fishing industry and popular palm-lined
beaches as recently as the late-1970s, the bay has become a watery
dump for waste from shipyards and two commercial ports as well as
leachate, the toxic byproduct of mountains of rotting trash sitting
at what was South America's largest landfill until its closure last
year.
At low tide, household trash, including old washing machines and
soggy couches, float atop vast islands of accumulated sewage and
sediment. Experts say it's even possible that vessels plowing
through the water at speeds of more than 20 mph during Olympic
events could collide with floating detritus below the surface.
Ecology professor Ricardo Freitas knows all too well the risks. As
part of his work with a conservation group trying to save Rio's
besieged urban caimans, Freitas regularly wades in and wrestles the
reptiles onto shore or into boats to tag them.
"There's no way to work in these waters, where you are literally
neck deep in feces in some places, and not be afraid of the health
effects," Freitas said, adding that on the one occasion when he was
bitten by a caiman, the small wound got severely infected because of
the contaminated water. "Show me the Olympic athlete who's going to
have the courage to get into waters like these."
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It's not clear what consequences there might be
if Rio doesn't clean up its waterways, but this isn't the first
time the Olympics have faced steep environmental challenges. The
Swiss-based International Olympic Committee took much flak
during the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, when the city failed to
clean up its smoggy air in the event's initial days. This year,
similar concerns have been raised about the Winter Olympics in
Sochi, Russia, with crews dumping concrete construction waste
and other trash in rivers, protected forests and other sensitive
zones.
Pollution problems at those sites may be a key reason why the
committee in September chose Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics. Japan
had billed itself as a "safe pair of hands."
The Japanese government helped fund an effort to clean up Rio's
Guanabara Bay starting in 1992, but two decades later there's
little to show for the more than $700 million spent. At least
five sewage treatment plants were built with the money, but most
run under capacity because they haven't been fully linked to the
collection pipes. One plant, in the gritty suburb of Sao
Goncalo, across the bay from Rio, has yet to treat a drop of
sewage.
Some critics say corruption was largely responsible for the
failure of the Japanese-funded effort, which grew out of the
United Nation's Eco-92 conference in Rio. But Gerson Serva,
coordinator for the state's latest bay cleanup program, said the
real culprit was lack of planning.
"The scale of what needs to be done was so great that they
started to try to tackle all the fronts, which meant that many
things were left half done," Serva said. "Rio has historically
had a culture of poor planning in the realm of basic
sanitation."
While water quality varies depending on the exact location, the
state's INEA environmental agency has classified nearly all the
13 bayside beaches it monitors as "terrible" for 12 years
running due to high levels of fecal bacteria. Exposure to such
bacteria can cause gastro-intestinal illnesses like cramps,
diarrhea, dysentery and cholera. Pollution data readings since
2000 provided by INAE show consistently high readings in
Guanabara and the waters of Barra.
With other measures coming up short, authorities are pinning
their cleanup efforts on the construction of "river treatment
units," or RTUs, which are facilities built over rivers that
filter most of the trash and human waste before the waters pour
into the bay. Costly to operate because they rely on a fleet of
trucks to shuttle the collected waste to landfills, RTUs are
seen by environmentalists as a stopgap measure that fails to
prevent sewage and trash from being dumped, only cleaning them
up afterward.
Rio officials are also counting on a fleet of 10 garbage boats
that will ply the waters of the bay, filtering out garbage and
potentially dangerous larger debris.
The most visible cleanup measures are "eco-barriers," chains of
plastic buoys strung across rivers that block some of trash.
Mario Moscatelli, a biologist who oversees the reforestation of
mangrove forests along the bay, said he fears that even if the
bay is cleaned up, the state will let it deteriorate after the
athletes go home.
"If it's hard to get authorities to care about the Guanabara Bay
now, with the Olympics looming," he said, "imagine what it will
be like once they're over."
[Associated
Press; JENNY BARCHFIELD]
Associated Press writers
Stephen Wade and Bradley Brooks contributed to this report.
Jenny Barchfield on
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jennybarchfield.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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