Dirty water may force Rio to move 2016 Olympic aquatic events

Sewage contamination in Rio de Janeiro’s bay and urban waters may force the Brazilian city to give up hosting 2016 Olympic events planned at iconic beach venues. Only one year ahead of the 2016 games, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have moved into high gear to deal with the looming issue.

Human waste, untreated and streaming through countless open canals, empties into Rio’s Guanabara Bay, polluting the city’s lagoons and stunning beaches—where 1,400 of the world’s top athletes will compete.

And fears abound about how many will fall ill during next year’s aquatic events.

Bruce Gordon, the WHO’s coordinator for water, sanitation, hygiene, and health, said Rio’s contamination is no secret: Local fishermen in the bay and urban residents have long dealt with the fetid waters and must avoid certain parts of the bay altogether as stagnation and trash add to problem of inflowing human waste. Tidal currents fail to cleanse many inlets and beaches and the city must sometimes close certain popular swimming areas.

An Associated Press study published July 30 tested samples from every venue where Summer Olympics athletes will have contact with water. The conclusions showed toxic levels of disease-causing viruses stemming from human sewage, according to Brazilian virologist Fernando Spilki of Feevale University. He tested Rio’s waters for three types of human adenovirus and also checked all samples for enterovirus, rotavirus, and bacterial fecal coliforms. Such viruses may cause gastric and respiratory illnesses that could put an end to competition for those in water events.

Though all aquatic athletes are potentially at risk, whether rowing, swimming, or sailing, exposure may not automatically cause infections because of each person’s immune system and other factors.

American athletes Kalyn Robinson and Chip Peterson know firsthand about the gamble involved and wonder if their long-term health problems trace back to the open-water races they swam in Rio during the 2007 Pan American Games. But doctors can’t conclusively say swimming off Copacabana Beach is the source of their affliction: diarrhea, unexplained cramping, and unbearable stomach pain starting two weeks after their competition there eight years ago. Robinson eventually developed Crohn’s Disease and had to retire from swimming. Peterson dealt with colitis, a similar inflammatory bowel disease, leading to a colon removal in 2013.

Medical experts say thousands of other athletes have competed in Rio’s waters without getting sick. But the WHO and the IOC have dealt with increasing publicity over Rio’s sewage since 13 U.S. athletes came down with stomach illnesses after participating in a regatta at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Rio earlier this month. Team doctor Kathryn Ackerman suspected it was due to pollution in the lake—the same waterway slated for Olympic rowing and canoeing events.

Like most nations, Brazil relies on bacterial “markers” to measure the safety of recreational water. But recently scientists and the WHO have advocated including tests for specific disease-causing viruses in waters, since experts say the majority of waterborne illnesses are viral rather than bacterial.

Gordon emphasized monitoring is second in importance to the need for Rio’s authorities to take action against the massive contamination of city waterways. For decades, Rio has been a magnet for internal migrants, and slums—called favelas—have mushroomed on urban hillsides, with little headway made to link the communities to a sewerage treatment system. Part of Brazil's Olympic plan was a pledge by authorities six years ago to radically cut the amount of raw sewage in Guanabara Bay before the Olympics. So far, only one of eight projected treatment plants has been constructed.

Last weekend, Rio sailors and residents took to the bay to protest its contaminated waters. Sailboats, schooners, tourist boats, canoes, and fishing vessels floated 7 miles round-trip between Marina da Gloria on Guanabara Bay to Urca, a chic bayside neighborhood located at the foot of the fabled Sugarloaf mountain.

The Living Bay group that organized the protest said the bay’s condition should be improved regardless of the Olympics.

This weekend, at least 50 countries sent 330 sailors to Guanabara Bay to compete in an Olympic sailing test event. Boats launched from a small beach where water tests showed human adenovirus levels to be 127,000 times what experts would consider alarmingly high on an American beach.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.