BRAZIL-OLYMPICS/POLLUTION Rio’s Olympic bay still swamped in sewage

Record ID: 217069

  • Title: BRAZIL-OLYMPICS/POLLUTION Rio’s Olympic bay still swamped in sewage
  • Date: 28th January 2015
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF OLYMPIC SAILING TEST EVENT
  • Embargoed: 12th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3GRMNI9WX97FHCGAUHALHJ1H6
  • Story Text: The organizers of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this week have said they are still committed to cleaning up the Guanabara Bay where Olympic sailing events are meant to be held, despite a state official indicating they may not meet their goal.
    The cleaning of Guanabara Bay was a key part of Rio's bid and has long been an objective of various local governments.
    But local biologist, Mario Moscatelli, told Reuters on Tuesday (January 27) that the massive bay is still being flooded with untreated sewage and trash just over a year and half from the start of the Games.
    The free-flow of sewage comes despite the government working to expand its network of Sewage Treatment Systems, known by the Portuguese acronym of ETE, one of the cornerstones to removing pollutants from the bay ahead of the Olympics.
    Moscatelli says the rivers and streams that flow into the bay are overrun with sewage and other contaminants and are still not being treated.
    "On the Guanabara Bay, just about all the rivers are filthy and dead. A majority of the Guanabara Bay, I'd say three-fourths of the bay, the water quality must be wretched because its shores constantly take in sewage and trash. We have a treatment station (the Pavuna ETE), which is the largest of the Guanabara Bay's cleanup programme, which has used up $1.8 billion dollars over the last 20 years and is only halfway up and running. And the Sao Goncalo station, another treatment station, never came online," Moscatelli said referring to the state's Sewage Treatment Systems.
    The Pavuna ETE was reopened in February of 2014 after being abandoned for years and currently treats 800 litres of sewage per second.
    By 2016, the plant is supposed to be capable of treating 1500 litres per minute.
    The other station Moscatelli referred to, the Sao Goncalo ETE, is projected to be working sometime during the first half of this year.
    A third station, the Sarapui ETE, was also abandoned for years and came back online in 2011 and currently treats 500 litres per second. This should also be doubled by 2016.
    The government says that over the course of the last eight years, sewage treatment on the bay has gone from 2,000 litres per second to 7,000 litres per second today.
    Currently, the Olympic committee says about 50 percent of sewage entering the bay is being treated, up from just 10 percent in 2007.
    The stated goal under the Olympic bid was to treat 80 percent, but Moscatelli insists the bay would be much cleaner if the government was more dedicated to resolving the issue.
    "There isn't a lack of money. There isn't a lack of technology. What is lacking in addressing the problem with the Guanabara Bay and the Jacarepagua Lagoon system is political will. So, let's forget this whole thing about 80 percent, 10 percent; now it's this thing and then another thing,' and let's work," Moscatelli said.
    Despite concerns of water quality, the head of communications for the Rio 2016 organizing committee Mario Andrada on Tuesday said there was "no Plan B" and the sailing events would be held on the Guanabara Bay.
    He insisted they still planned to treat 80 percent of the sewage entering the bay by 2016 and said they would also guarantee the racecourse was not tainted by floating debris.
    "The sailing competition will be held at the Guanabara Bay under the best conditions possible within the realm of the Olympics. There won't be any televisions floating (in the water) in the area of the regatta. We have a number of systems to guarantee that not only will the water quality not present any risk to the health of the athletes, but will also guarantee that no trash will be in the water in the area of competition," Andrada said.
    Some Olympic sailors have complained of floating sofas and animal carcasses in the water which is often described as a "sewer."
    In December, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation research institute said it found a type of "super bacteria" usually associated with hospital waste in a river leading into the bay.
    The bacteria, which is resistant to antibiotics, can cause urinary, gastrointestinal and pulmonary infections.
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