Posted on 02/18/2016 4:42:50 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Rio Has Given Up On Its Goal To Clean Up The Water In Time For The Olympics
When bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Jaineiro promised the International Olympics Committee that it would eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water, and would fully regenerate the lagoon in which rowing and kayaking events will be held. Now a few months from the start of the games, Rio has given up on keeping those promises.
Outside The Lines' Bonnie Ford has a thorough examination of the current state of Rio's water pollution, and things aren't looking so great. Ford visits several areas in which the water is laden with trash, and describes being overwhelmed by the smell of raw sewage on a few occasions. She also got this quote from the Rio 2016 spokeswoman:
"It's not going to happen because there was not enough commitment, funds and energy," Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told Outside the Lines. "However, we finally got something that the bay has been missing for generations, which is public will for the cleaning.
"Nobody wants to have guests at their house and show a dirty house. So if we're not able to reach the target, we need to keep working until the last minute and make sure that the athletes can compete in safe waters, and we’ve been doing this."
That's not a very encouraging statement, doubly so considering that independent testing done by the Associated Press suggested that the presence of viral pathogens in the water was a problem the IOC was failing to address.
The athletes have also resigned themselves to the fact that they will be competing in water that could very well make them sick. OTL's story cites a 2015 U.S. Olympic Committee planning document that says the committee does "not expect to anticipate major reductions in bacterial or viral pathogen levels at the competition venues." This has left many of the athletes to take extra precautions while competing:
The U.S. will send 48 rowers to Rio, and they will be as forewarned and forearmed as the federation can make them, starting with squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer that will be distributed on the flight to Brazil.
Hannafin says the athletes have been asked to get hepatitis A vaccinations and polio boosters and take the oral typhoid vaccine. Their oar handles will be bleached and their boats washed inside and out after each training session or competition. Gear will be laundered at a high enough temperature to kill microbes. "Track bites" - the nicks rowers get on the backs of their calves from their sliding seats - will be cleaned and covered to reduce the chance of infection. Probiotics screened by the USOC will be on the training table.
Should be a great Olympics.
Yeah ... it'll be a Divine miracle if no athletes come out of this corrupt third-world venue uninfected and uncontaminated.
Their logo and mascot should be a friendly looking colliform bacterium.
the Hep-C is going to be the least of their problems. Wonder which of the athletes is going to be the first to bow out of their Olympic spot in protest?
Unlike Greece which went bust after their games, Brazil is broke. There’s going to be a lot more abandoned and incomplete projects.
And there’s an Olympic event in that water as well. Plus, they’ve not finished building stuff. And I won’t go into what that icon thingie looks like.
I would never go to Rio and subject myself to the crowds and filth.
IF I were a participant in the upcoming Olympics in Brazil, I’d be a was.
the committee what signed off on holding the games in some turd world sh!thole should all have their finances gone over with a lice comb...
“Mr. Floatie” is probably needing a gig...
Considering the fact that the World is essentially broke, why not just cancel them?
Brazil can’t handle it, Rio’s a mess, and now there’s the Zika virus.
Could have been worse... Chicago was in the running. Every event would be a shooting competition.
I think you’d be out of your mind to go there. Brazil (one of this miserable Pope’s favorites) is totally dysfunctional. BTW, this whole “Zika” thing is a fraud, but Pope Silly the First is so devoted to the UN that he’s out there hawking their message.
Brazil, for those who don’t know, is not Spanish in its background, but Portuguese. The Portuguese were big slavers, so the country has a large black population that is practically uncatechized. Portugal was sending missionaries to Brazil but a number of them, including a ship of some 60 lay and clerical Jesuit missionaries (back in the day when Jesuits were orthodox), were captured by British pirates and literally made to walk the plank. So Brazil hasn’t had a great chance to get ahead.
Anybody (any Brazilian FReeper or somebody who’s lived there recently) have any opinions or insider knowledge?
Who are the corrupt officials who chose this venue? They should all be sentenced to Drowning In Sewage.
Many of the European and North American cities that were interested in hosting the Olympics over the next 10-15 years have been removing themselves from contention. Boston withdrew from the 2024 Summer Olympics under political pressure from taxpayers who don't want to pay the costs. For the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC was left in the embarrassing position of choosing between unlikely winter sports cities Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) when Oslo dropped out of contention -- again, under political pressure from taxpayers.
We're getting to the point where Third World sh!t-holes are the only places left where the governments are corrupt enough -- and the taxpayers dumb enough -- to host these stupid Olympics.
OH MAN! That one is GOOOOOD!
one drink of that water and you’d get aidszika. You would go home with a shrunken head
Proud sponsors of cramps and diarrhea.
We may see some track records broken if they put the portapoties at the finish line.
100%!!! but how long before there's no spectators though cause those who can afford the tickets won't goto the venue?
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