The waters in Rio de Janeiro, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, are teeming with viruses and bacteria from human feces, an investigation by the Associated Press has found.
Advertisement
Officials in Brazil told the worldwide Olympic Committee when they bid on the games that they would “regenerate Rio’s magnificent waterways” and would spend upwards of $4 billion to make sure the sanitation infrastructure was up to par.
When Austria’s sailing team showed up to train earlier this month in Guanabara Bay, several of their team members fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea. However, Leonardo Daemon, manager of water quality at INEA, continued to claim that the waters are in line with Brazilian standards of water pollution, which are also based on bacteria levels. In testing commissioned by AP, experts found none of the water venues were safe for swimming or boating.
In the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites, the AP conducted four rounds of tests starting in March.
The Associated Press says it isn’t clear how many would then become seriously ill. Almost 1,400 of them will be sailing, swimming, canoeing and rowing in Rio, the AP reported.
“It’s all the water from the toilets and the showers and whatever people put down their sinks, all mixed up, and it’s going out into the beach waters”, John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, who examined the AP tests, said.
“What would be the standard that should be followed for the quantity of virus?”
“I’ve had high temperatures and problems with my stomach”, sailor David Hussl told the AP. “Because the presence or absence of virus in the water… needs to have a standard, a limit”, he said.
Investigation’s results consistently found large amounts of active and infectious human adenoviruses, which can cause respiratory trouble and intense vomiting and diarrhea, with concentrations similar to those seen in raw sewage. People hoping to compete in the Olympics are scheduled to perform a triathlon qualifier event at Copacabana on Sunday, and rowers are scheduled for a Wednesday test run at Rodrigo de Freitas Lake.
In comparison, in California experts are alarmed if levels of the virus reach 1,000 per liter.
Advertisement
Rubbish and debris floats into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro Kristina Mena, an American expert in risk assessment for waterborne viruses, said global athletes at all water venues would have a 99 per cent chance of infection if they consumed just three teaspoons of water.
