Two years out, Rio admits its polluted bay won't be clean for 2016 Olympics

Two years out, Rio admits its polluted bay won&#039;t be clean for 2016 Olympics

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Even with another two years left to go, Rio de Janeiro's mayor admitted that the city's soiled Guanabara Bay won't be clean in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The body of water, which is set to host the games' sailing competition, has been described as "dark, brown, and stinking."

And it sounds like it's going to stay like that. At a press conference Monday, Mayor Eduardo Paes apologized for the bay not being "completely clean" by the beginning of the games. "That was something that we could not accomplish that was in the bid book," he added.

The sailing competition will either be moved to "unpolluted" waters or will take place at the bay's entrance. Despite recent sightings of dead bodies among piles of trash, Paes reiterated that Guanabara's waters do not pose a health risk.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.