Experts Warn Olympians In Rio Waters: ‘Keep Your Mouth Closed'

Health experts in Brazil have a simple message of advice for Olympic athletes competing in Rio’s sewage-infested waters, The New York Times reported: “Keep your mouth closed.”

Athletes face a “veritable petri dish of pathogens in many of the city’s waters, from rotaviruses that can cause diarrhea and vomiting to drug-resistant ‘superbacteria’ that can be fatal to people with weakened immune systems,” the report said.

“Despite the government’s promises seven years ago to stem the waste that fouls Rio’s expansive Guanabara Bay and the city’s fabled ocean beaches, officials acknowledge that their efforts to treat raw sewage and scoop up household garbage have fallen far short,” the report said.

Travelers in town to watch the Olympics Games are also at risk if they decide to head to popular tourist beaches.

“Researchers at the Federal University of Rio found serious contamination at the upscale beaches of Ipanema and Leblon, where many of the half-million Olympic spectators are expected to frolic between sporting events,” the report said.

Here’s how the International Olympic Committee and Brazil officials have responded to widespread horror about the state of the Rio’s waterways, per The New York Times:

[They] acknowledge that, in many places, the city’s waters are filthy. But they say the areas where athletes will compete — like the waters off Copacabana Beach, where swimmers will race — meet World Health Organization safety standards. Even some venues with higher levels of human waste, like Guanabara Bay, present only minimal risk because athletes sailing or windsurfing in them will have limited contact with potential contamination, they add.

Brazil has fallen short of its promise to pour money into cleaning up sewage in preparation for the games. Untreated sewage remains a sanitation crisis in Rio.

“In its 2009 bid for these Games, Brazil pledged to spend $4 billion to clean up 80 percent of the sewage that flows untreated into the bay. In the end, the state government spent just $170 million, citing a budget crisis, officials said,” the Times reported.

One public health expert called Rio's sewage system "medieval" comparing it to London or Paris in the 14th century, according to the Associated Press. The city is hardly an outlier in Brazil, the report said:

Fewer than half of households nationwide are hooked up to sewage mains, meaning that much of the waste generated by about 100 million people runs through open-air ditches that bisect neighborhoods like Kaike's across this continent-sized nation, befouling streams and rivers that in turn contaminate lakes and lagoons, beaches and bays.

Previous competitions in Rio’s waterways have ended in sickness for athletes.

“During a surfing competition held in Rio last year, organizers say that a quarter of the participants suffered from nausea, diarrhea or vomiting after entering the water. A German Paralympic sailor also said a teammate had a ‘severe skin infection’ after contact with the water in training,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.