Guanabara Bay Problems

Mario Moscatelli, a biologist, was quoted by Anna Kaiser in an article from time.com on April 2,2015 as saying, “ sailing in the bay is like playing Russian roulette.” Moscatelli is talking about Guanabara Bay where athletes are scheduled to be sailing, but Guanabara Bay is not the only water venue that is highly polluted. Rodrigo de Freitas Lake where athletes are scheduled to be rowing and canoeing and Copacabana Beach where athletes are scheduled to be swimming are both highly polluted. An estimated 1,400 athletes will compete at one of these three sites that can pose a threat to their health.The 2016 summer Olympics are scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro but due to massive levels of water pollution many people are questioning if the water is safe enough to compete in.

As part of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic bid, the government pledged to clean up the city’s pollution,but still with enough untreated wastewater and sewage being dumped into the cities water that it could fill Rio’s Maracana stadium more than

An RWL Water article by Linda Paulson published on January 4,2013. The goal is to be treating 80% of their sewage by the Olympics, but according to a BBC News article by Julia Carneiro published on January 10,2014, Rio’s Deputy Secretary of Environment, Gelson Serva, said that only 34% of Rio’s Sewage is treated-the rest is spilled raw into the waters. Leona Deckelbaum, the coordinator of the NGO My Rio campaign says the level of fecal matter in Guanabara bay, where athletes will be sailing, is 198 times higher than the legal limit in the United States she is quoted as saying,”I wouldn’t put my little pinky toe in it”; but this worries more than just the U.S. team. According to a The Atlantic article by Olga Khazan published on April 18,2014, the Irish sailing team 's performance director, James O’Callaghan, said “As a result (of