The scandal of the polluted Guanbara Bay has a coming out now. Multiresistent bacteria were found in the sewage water flowing from the old Rio Carioca directly into Guanbara Bay near Flamengo Beach – one of the declared olympic sailing areas (read more in BBC, The Telegraph and Reuters). Of course one can argue about the origin of the pollution. In the adjacent parts of the city Laranjeiras and Botafogo we find lots of hospitals.
In Aug 2014, some officials described the pollution not as dangerous and the water quality as more or less the same as in other comparable locations (read more).
But the real scandal is not the severe danger for health to the Olympics. Its rather the fact that the majorality of Rio de Janeiro knew about this problem for much more than a decade. On Flamengo Beach, a lot of families and little children having a good time on weekends, swiming, playing, etc. This situation seems to reflect again the exotic mindset of many officials – a combination of arrogance, disrespect, thoughtlessness and asininity.
In mid 2014, Eduardo Paes already announced (read more), that the ambicious targets towards a clean bay could (probably) not be held. Lets have a look in 2015 what other developments will take place.
Exit of RIO CARIOCA near Flamengo Beach.