Olympic Athletes Endangered By Human Fecal Contamination In Rio

By Sara Jerome
@sarmje

Olympians competing in Rio de Janeiro next summer may wind up splashing around in dirty water.

They will be “swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games,” according to an Associated Press investigation.

The investigation revealed “dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea,” the report continued.

Water contamination in Brazil is widespread. Officials say the water will not endanger athletes; however, the government has not tested for viruses.

“In the three water venues for Olympic games, tests [commissioned by the AP] found levels of human adenovirus roughly equal to that seen in raw sewage. Global water experts who examined AP's data said the water is not safe for swimming or boating,” Newser explained.

“Extreme water pollution is common in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites. As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach,” the site said.

John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, explained the potential threat. "What you have there is basically raw sewage," he said, per the AP.

Rio had pledged to reduce pollution before the competitions begin.

“The rehabilitation of Rio's water was supposed to be a major benefit of infrastructure spending ahead of the Games, but the relevant sanitation projects are behind schedule; the city's mayor has called the failure to follow through on cleanup plans a ‘shame’ and a ‘wasted opportunity,’” Slate reported.

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.

Image credit: "London 2012 Olympic Games," alistair ross © 2012, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

http://www.pollutiononline.com/doc/summer-olympics-may-feature-human-fecal-contamination-0001