No Excuses For Rio: Sister City Tackled Sewage Woes

Rio's sewage challenges have cast a shadow over the upcoming Olympic Games.  But a nearby city is showing that clean waterways are an obtainable goal.

In Niteroi, across the Guanabara Bay from Rio, officials have undertaken a major sewage cleanup effort.

Around "95 percent of sewage is treated and authorities say they are on track for 100 percent within a year, even though Rio's failure to do its part means that sludge still flows in from across the bay," the Associated Press reported.

Some reasons Niteroi has been successful and Rio has not, per the article: water privatization, large investments in infrastructure, and collaboration between government and utilities.

In Niteroi, a private company “invested 500 million Brazilian reais ($141 million U.S.) to expand the city's then-sole sewage treatment plant and build another eight units — as well as, crucially, to lay the pipes to transport the sewage," the report said.

As recently as 1997, Niteroi's sewage was even worse than Rio's is today. Over two-thirds of city sewage was untreated, the report said. But a private company stepped in to manage city sewage. Since then, the city has poured money into treatment plants. Niteroi is now fifth in the nation for sewage treatment.

"City Hall got to the point where it had no other alternative but to look to the private sector for someone who could solve the big problems," said Carlos Henrique da Cruz Lima, an official at Aguas do Brasil, the sewer management company.

Officials point to private sector involvement as a big part of the city's success. Niteroi's vice-mayor, Axel Grael, put it like this: "Public utilities here have shown themselves to be inefficient, unable to make the needed investments at the speed the population demands."

By contrast, Rio's sewage problems are so entrenched that they have made the city a target for criticism as it prepares to host the Olympic Games.

In July, an Associated Press investigation revealed that athletes will be “swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games.”

The probe pointed to “dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.”

Scientists say they have found drug-resistant “super bacteria” in Rio’s waters where athletes will complete, according to Reuters.

To read all of our coverage of Rio’s water issues ahead of the Olympics visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.