Rio! The Raw Sewage Capital of the Summer Olympics!
Pee-Yew! And welcome to Rio de Janeiro and the Summer Olympics of 2016. Won't the swimming events be Uber Cool!
Yes, according to the AP, all the athletes that will be coming to beautiful Rio next year for the Summer Olympics will be swimming and boating in water that's so contaminated with human feces that they'll become so violently ill that they won't even be able to compete in the games.
It seems that extreme water pollution is common all over Brazil and that most of the sewage isn't treated; it just runs down the hills through open-air ditches into the streams and rivers that feed the nice new Olympic water venues. And that's where over 10,000 athletes from over 200 nations will be competing in next year's Summer Olympics. About 1,400 of these boys and girls will be sailing in the polluted waters in Guanabara Bay, canoeing and rowing on the filthy waters of the Rodrigo de Freitas lake and swimming off renowned but polluted Copacabana beach.
"Dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage," are everywhere in all the Olympic and Paralympic venues, according to the AP report. The results have alarmed competitors who are already in Rio for training, and some of whom already have gotten sick with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the report.
Brazilian officials have been pledging to clean the mess up for years, but the latest reports say the stench of raw sewage is still in the air when travelers land at Rio's international airport. Most of Brazil's prime beaches are completely deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and the official Olympic lake is currently littered with dead and rotting fish. Some tests measure up to 1.7 million times the level that would be considered hazardous in the U.S.
"This is by far the worst water quality we've ever seen in our sailing careers" says Ivan Bulaja, the coach of Austria's sailing team. Austria's sailors have already become sick with vomiting and diarrhea and have lost valuable training days because of the sickening water quality.
Medical experts say that most of the people in Rio have been so exposed over the years to the viruses in the water that they've built up antibodies in their systems, but foreign tourists and athletes who are visiting for the first time won't have that protection. Many will become violently ill as soon as they come near the polluted water venues.
Biologist Mario Moscatelli says that Brazilian authorities "promised the moon" so that they could win their Olympic bid, and now they aren't making good on their promises. Meanwhile, Rio says they will try to clean things up, but the Governor of Rio, Luiz Fernando Pezao, says there simply isn't time to clean up the water before the games begin.
Yes, according to the AP, all the athletes that will be coming to beautiful Rio next year for the Summer Olympics will be swimming and boating in water that's so contaminated with human feces that they'll become so violently ill that they won't even be able to compete in the games.
It seems that extreme water pollution is common all over Brazil and that most of the sewage isn't treated; it just runs down the hills through open-air ditches into the streams and rivers that feed the nice new Olympic water venues. And that's where over 10,000 athletes from over 200 nations will be competing in next year's Summer Olympics. About 1,400 of these boys and girls will be sailing in the polluted waters in Guanabara Bay, canoeing and rowing on the filthy waters of the Rodrigo de Freitas lake and swimming off renowned but polluted Copacabana beach.
"Dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage," are everywhere in all the Olympic and Paralympic venues, according to the AP report. The results have alarmed competitors who are already in Rio for training, and some of whom already have gotten sick with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the report.
Brazilian officials have been pledging to clean the mess up for years, but the latest reports say the stench of raw sewage is still in the air when travelers land at Rio's international airport. Most of Brazil's prime beaches are completely deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and the official Olympic lake is currently littered with dead and rotting fish. Some tests measure up to 1.7 million times the level that would be considered hazardous in the U.S.
"This is by far the worst water quality we've ever seen in our sailing careers" says Ivan Bulaja, the coach of Austria's sailing team. Austria's sailors have already become sick with vomiting and diarrhea and have lost valuable training days because of the sickening water quality.
Medical experts say that most of the people in Rio have been so exposed over the years to the viruses in the water that they've built up antibodies in their systems, but foreign tourists and athletes who are visiting for the first time won't have that protection. Many will become violently ill as soon as they come near the polluted water venues.
Biologist Mario Moscatelli says that Brazilian authorities "promised the moon" so that they could win their Olympic bid, and now they aren't making good on their promises. Meanwhile, Rio says they will try to clean things up, but the Governor of Rio, Luiz Fernando Pezao, says there simply isn't time to clean up the water before the games begin.
