APPHOTO XSI311: In this November 5, 2015 photo, workers take a rest on two “eco-boats”, or garbage-collecting barges, at a canal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic waterways are teeming with unsafe pathogens, both far offshore and near land, where raw sewage freely seeps into them, testing by the Associated Press shows.
In August, 13 USA rowers became ill at a test trial and a team physician suspected the sicknesses were caused by pollution in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, where the event took place, ESPN reported via the AP.
Now, the AP’s most recent tests since August show not only no improvement in water quality – but that the water is even more widely contaminated than previously known. Later in the summer, many competitors in rowing and sailing events fell ill following pre-Olympic competitions.
According to the AP’s 2013 report, “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”. “It’s not just along the shoreline but it’s elsewhere in the water, therefore it’s going to increase the exposure of the people who come into contact with those waters”, waterborne virus expert Kristina Mena told the AP. Further putting the news into perspective, Mena said, “If we saw those levels here in the United States on beaches, officials would likely close those beaches”.
Previous tests run for the AP showed the potential health impact on athletes competing in Rio would include stomach and respiratory illnesses and, more rarely, heart and brain inflammation.
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Brazilian, Olympic and World Health Organization officials now say Brazil needs only to carry out testing for bacterial “markers” of pollution to determine water quality. “Rio 2016 follows the expert advice of the World Health Organization, whose guidelines for Safe Recreational Water Environments recommend classifying water through a regular program of microbial water quality testing”. Brazil had won the Olympic bid on a promise to clean Rio’s contaminated waterways, but now concedes that will not happen. But the organizers have all but admitted that they will not have enough time before next summer’s Games to properly clean up the waters and ensure athletes’ safety. Athletes who are competing in open water swimming, triathlon, sailing, canoeing and rowing would have a 99 percent chance of being infected with a virus by ingesting as little as three teaspoons of the water. Almost 1,400 of them will be sailing, swimming, canoeing and rowing in Rio. “These pathogens we’re looking for, especially the viruses, are able to migrate in the currents in a big way”, said Spilki.
