Rio organizers, in conjunction with advisors from FINA, swimming’s worldwide governing body, and the global Olympic Committee, believe the green water – and the proliferation of algae that they believe caused it – can be remedied by a change in the pool filters.
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The larger pool in the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre turned green on Wednesday, a day after the diving pool had also changed colour. Officials tried to use chemicals to make it clearer, but it didn’t work.
“Of course it’s an embarrassment”, he said.
So, they announced Saturday they would drain and refill the competition pool with some 1 million gallons of clear water from the nearby practice pool, The Associated Press reported. According to Gizmodo, the hydrogen peroxide, which is used as a cleaning agent for pool should not be combined with chlorine, as it neutralizes the chlorine.
The ever-changing colour of the water in both the water polo and diving pools have been an endless source of amusement and frustration for the past week, and Andrada and venues manager Gustavo Nascimento fronted a media conference to come clean on the issue.
Officials said they would be draining the pool a matter of hours before the synchronised swimming events started today.
Despite finding an answer to the water’s color, Olympic officials said they would not be able to clean the water quickly, and will begin draining the pool on Saturday, transferring almost 1 million gallons from another nearby pool.
Prior to Saturday, even the authorities had different versions as to the cause of the green water such as sunlight and lack of wind. “The water in the warm-up pool is in flawless condition”.
The electronic monitoring system for the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center was functioning but was fooled by the chemical reaction to think that the chlorine was still working, Nascimento said. “This was an issue we could not solve quickly [but] we need to have water looking the way it should look”. But, he noted, it should not be used in conjunction with chlorine because it negates chlorine’s ability to kill off organic matter. So the medium in which athletes, some who travelled thousands of miles to compete, can perform and show off what they have trained years for, is now back to a state where it won’t harm or hinder their results in any way, which is a good baseline for the Olympics. The mystery increased a few days ago when the water polo pool’s color began to change from blue to green as well.
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“There was never a health risk or a health worry or a health concern”, Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said. He said it’s a painful lesson for them to learn.
