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The 2016 Summer Olympics are fast approaching, and athletes, coaches, organizers, and tourists alike are preparing to descend on Rio de Janeiro in August to celebrate this age-old tradition. But as the opening ceremony draws closer, some major issues are rising to the forefront of the international community -- including issues within Rio’s own Guanabara Bay, a place where long distance swimmers, rowers, and sailors will be competing in the water.
As Brazil has known for many years, the water conditions in Guanabara Bay are less than ideal. Back in 2009, when Rio was in the running to be one of the locations for the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian officials argued that hosting the Olympics would help to resolve the pollution and water contamination problems and pressure the country to clean up the sewage in the lakes. The Brazilian Olympics spokesperson went so far as to promise the country would remove 80 percent of the sewage from Guanabara Bay by the start of the Olympics.
Now, with only four months to go before the opening ceremony, the rowing, sailing, and long distance swim teams training in the Bay are finding out the hard way that the sewage in Guanabara Bay is still a major problem. In response to this, the Brazilian Olympics spokesperson has now said that only 65 percent of the sewage in the Bay will be able to be removed before the games begin -- a drastic 15 percent drop in the last eight years. The IOC, or International Olympics Committee, has yet to comment on the situation.
To make matters worse, Guanabara Bay is used as a service center for nearby oil and gas fields and as a shipping lane for oil tankers -- both parts of a destructive industry which affect everything—from wildlife to plants, from fishermen to water quality—in the Bay.
But the local fisherman have been fighting to protect the Bay and their way of life for years. Alexandre Anderson, one of these fishermen, has been calling on Brazil to stop using Guanabara Bay as a source for oil transportation. His efforts to save the Bay have led to 12 arrests and 28 lawsuits, all in the name of protecting his livelihood and stopping the toxic pollution of the Bay.
But despite his best efforts, the oil shipping has persisted, and on top of the already destructive practices of the fossil fuel industry, the shipping within Guanabara Bay specifically has further complicated the sewage issues.
As a precaution for the athletes who will be competing in and around the water, both sailing and rowing coaches have asked their teams to try not to come in contact with the water, to soak any and all clothes that they wore while training in bleach, and to rinse themselves off in antibacterial mouthwash between their events to prevent any sort of illness. But despite all of the precautions, some athletes have still reported becoming sick and experiencing flu-like symptoms.
And if all of these environmental concerns weren’t enough, Brazil is currently experiencing a Zika virus epidemic. Zika, the increasingly widespread virus transmitted by mosquitoes, has been widely covered in the news as of late but still doesn’t have a cure. This increasingly serious disease could potentially put Olympians at risk, but luckily the virus has not been reported in Rio as of yet.
As the hugely popular Summer Olympic Games approach, the world will be closely watching Rio de Janeiro and the efforts of the Brazilian government to solve the pollution crisis. Millions of people will be converging on this global hotspot in mere months, and only time will tell if the city is prepared to protect and prioritize the well being of the local residents, the fishermen, and the athletes.