OLYMPICS-BRAZIL/LAGOON Waterways that will serve as backdrop to the Rio Olympics littered with trash and sewage

Record ID: 332356

  • Title: OLYMPICS-BRAZIL/LAGOON Waterways that will serve as backdrop to the Rio Olympics littered with trash and sewage
  • Date: 9th March 2015
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (MARCH 09, 2015) (REUTERS) APARTMENT BUILDINGS OVERLOOKING A LAGOON IN RIO WATER BIRDS STANDING ON THE SHORES OF THE LAGOON TRASH COLLECTED AROUND A FENCE IN THE WATER WATER BIRD VARIOUS OF TRASH FLOATING IN THE MARSHY SHORES OF THE LAGOON TRASH ON THE SHORE TYRE FLOATING IN THE WATER A SOFA FLOATING IN THE WATER PIECES OF FURNITURE FLOATING IN THE WATER BIOLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN THE REJUVENATION OF ECOSYSTEMS, MARIO MOSCATELLI LOOKING AT THE LAGOON FROM A SMALL BOAT MOSCATELLI USING AN OAR TO LIFT SEDIMENT FROM BOTTOM OF THE LAGOON (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) BIOLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN THE REJUVENATION OF ECOSYSTEMS, MARIO MOSCATELLI, SAYING: "In the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, the Guanabara Bay and the lowlands of Jacarepagua, there are practically no more rivers. All the rivers are dead because of the sewage." CLOSE-UP GAS BUBBLES RISING TO THE SURFACE FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE LAGOON MORE OF GAS BUBBLES RISING TO THE SURFACE VARIOUS OF A SOFA FLOATING IN THE WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) BIOLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN THE REJUVENATION OF ECOSYSTEMS, MARIO MOSCATELLI, SAYING: "On the one hand, you have the state government's resources to do these public works, depending on the public ministry's understanding. While the rivers, which are the source of the pollution, of the entire lagoon system, there still isn't a solution for them, neither by the state nor the city. So, there is a big risk that we will drag the lagoons, clean up the lagoons, but the lagoons will continue to take in trash and sewage from the rivers." VARIOUS OF A FAVELA OR SLUM NEIGHBOURHOOD BACKING UP TO THE LAGOON VARIOUS OF LAGOON MURKY WATER MEETING CLEAR WATER IN THE LAGOON TRASH ON THE SHORE GENERAL OF LAGOON RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AERIALS OF LAGOON SYSTEM
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ECDOMP3COA2D9ZNKRAPNZ2C5
  • Story Text: With less than a year and half before the 2016 Olympics kick off in Rio de Janeiro, the waterways the Olympic Park, Olympic golf course and other sport installations rest on are visibly polluted, littered with floating trash and furniture and still taking in raw sewage.
    As part of its Olympic bid, Rio de Janeiro promised to clean up its polluted waterways in what was meant to be a lasting legacy of the Games.
    But with time running short, many critics say the state and city governments tasked with cleaning up the city's expansive rivers, lagoons and bays are all but certain to fall short of their lofty promises.
    A Brazilian biologist who specializes in the rejuvenation of ecosystems, Mario Moscatelli, on Monday (March 9) told Reuters just about all the rivers in greater Rio de Janeiro are "dead" as a result of raw sewage that freely flows into them.
    "In the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, the Guanabara Bay and the lowlands of Jacarepagua, there are practically no more rivers. All the rivers are dead because of the sewage," Moscatelli said.
    The rivers in turn empty the trash and sewage into the lagoon system which will serve as a backdrop for the Olympic Games. They include the Jacarepagua, Camorim, Tijuca and Marapendi lagoons in the western part of Rio in addition to the Guanabara Bay to the east which will host Olympic sailing events.
    The western Barra de Tijuca and Jacarepagua neighbourhoods are central to Rio's Olympic project and will be home to the new Olympic Park as well as the Athletes' Village and the brand new Olympic golf course.
    Under the Rio 2016 plan, the lagoon system is meant to be dredged before the start of the Games in an effort to clean the waterways and prevent flooding.
    The plan also calls for treating sewage flowing into the lagoon system, but Moscatelli warned that treatment centres are not likely to be up and running before the Olympics start here in August of 2016.
    He says the government's plan is narrow and short-sighted and worries that simply dredging the basin of the lagoons won't cure the underlying problems caused by the sewage that flows freely and untreated into the rivers that feed the lagoons.
    "On the one hand, you have the state government's resources to do these public works (dredging the lagoons), depending on the public ministry's understanding. While the rivers, which are the source of the pollution, of the entire lagoon system, there still isn't a solution for them, neither by the state nor the city. So, there is a big risk that we will drag the lagoons, clean up the lagoons, but the lagoons will continue to take in trash and sewage from the rivers," Moscatelli said.
    Part of the reason untreated sewage finds its way into the waterways here is the existence of "favela" or slum neighbourhoods that lack infrastructure including sanitation systems.
    The makeshift neighbourhoods dot the entire city including the shores of the lagoons in the western Barra de Tijuca and Jacarepagua neighbourhoods that will host a large portion of the Olympics.
    More often than not, waste and trash from the favelas flows directly to the waterways.
    Moscatelli says that until these root problems are resolved, the lagoons here will remain polluted cesspools for the city.
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