Featured Image: Marcia Foletto / Agency O Globo via Bloomberg
By: Kira Krall
Viewers around the world are shown gorgeous scenery from Rio de Janeiro, including its major body of water, Guanabara Bay. What they’re not seeing is all of the pollution in Rio’s waters.
Olympic athletes are competing alongside literal trash. But not all of the waste is coming from the Bay’s coast. All waterways in the 1,600 square mile Guanabara Bay drainage basin are carrying 1,600 square miles worth of pollution to the Bay.
Raw sewage is a major player in the degradation of the Guanabara Bay’s water quality. Half of the houses in the Guanabara Bay drainage basin (including Rio and surrounding areas) aren’t connected to sewage treatment plants.
So, millions of people’s waste is being dumped into the waterways that all connect to the Bay. What’s worse, seasonal rains from May to October can overflow the sewage system and carry even more waste to the waters surrounding Rio de Janeiro.
Image Credit: Fox News Latino
But, trash and raw sewage aren’t the only things plaguing the waters. Almost 17,000 industries in the Bay’s drainage basin dump an average of 150 metric tons of wastewater into the bay per day.
These industrial chemicals can contain everything from gasoline to formaldehyde and ammonia. Agricultural runoff also carries excessive nutrients into the water that create colossal algae blooms. The algae cause massive fish die-offs in a process called eutrophication.
What that means is marine organisms are facing several threats. Any organisms that survive the toxic sludge could succumb to toxic algae instead. While most marine life in Guanabara Bay has since vacated, there is one population of about 30 Guiana dolphins that remains in residence.
Image Credit: Reuters / Ricardo Moraes
The Bay’s horrid water quality is responsible for the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the water called Carbapenemase-Producing Bacteria (or CPB). Diseases in this group affect the digestive system, namely the intestines. Klebsiella and E. coli are both CPBs.
Part of the problem lies in Brazil’s water quality standards. Allowable E. coli content in European waters usually falls below 400. Brazil allows an E. coli count of 800.
While Brazil’s citizens are the direct source of the pollution, it’s not completely their fault. Poor government regulation is the major cause for the dirty mess. Plans were made to install many treatment plants, but only one is operational. Sewage systems that aren’t maintained and landfills that are filling past the brim are also contributing to Brazil’s pollution problem.
Brazil won the bid for the 2016 Olympics because they promised to treat 80 percent of the sewage that slides into Guanabara Bay, a promise they failed to keep. One woman was murdered during her efforts to assist with the Olympic cleanup.
Without the support of the government, Brazil’s citizens and wildlife will continue to suffer.
You can read more about the journey of Guanabara Bay’s pollution here.