'Raw sewage' water threatens Rio's 2016 Olympics

The polluted Cunha canal. — (Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

An investigation by The Associated Press found incredibly high levels of viruses and bacteria from sewage in the water of Rio de Janeiro venues where Olympic and Paralympic athletes will compete next summer.

Over a period of five months, AP conducted four rounds of tests at Olympic sites, and found that none were ready for swimming or boating events. The results consistently showed large amounts of active and infectious human adenoviruses, which can cause respiratory trouble and intense vomiting and diarrhea, with concentrations similar to those seen in raw sewage. At one site that was thought to be cleaned up, Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, there were 14 million adenoviruses per liter to 1.7 billion per liter; for comparison, in Southern California, water officials are concerned when viral counts are at 1,000 per liter. "What you have there is basically raw sewage," marine biologist John Griffith told AP. "It's all the water from the toilets and the showers and whatever people put down their sinks, all mixed up, and it's going out into the beach waters."

Already, some competitors training in Rio have become sick, complaining of fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. The Austrian sailing team has been training for months in the Guanabara Bay, and coach Ivan Bulaja said it "is by far the worst water quality we've ever seen in our sailing careers. I am quite sure if you swim in this water and it goes into your mouth or nose that quite a lot of bad things are coming inside your body." In Rio, most of the waste goes through open-air ditches, down through streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites. Even though Brazilian officials have promised that the water will be safe in time for the games, international experts told AP it's too late to get everything cleaned up.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.