2015 ICF World Championships Slalom
 
1
2
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K1M
CZ J. PRSKAVEC
PL M. POLACZYK
US M. SMOLEN
K1W
CZ K. KUDEJOVA
DE R. FUNK
DE M. PFEIFER
C1M
GB D. FLORENCE
SI B. SAVSEK
GB R. WESTLEY
C1W
AU J. FOX
CZ K. HOSKOVA
ES N. VILARRUBLA
C2
DE ANTON/BENZIEN
FR PICCO/BISO
FR KLAUSS/PECHE

Canoe Sprint

Rio Olympic kayakers’ pollution fears

canoe kayak sprint slalom olympic games 2016 rio de janeiro brazil lake lagoa rodrigo de freitas sportscene icf pollution

Guy Dresser | Royal Canoe Club - Olympic kayakers who dip their hands into the water in the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio before they start racing at the 2016 Olympic Games run the risk of contracting serious illnesses. And the tradition of some winning rowing crews of chucking their cox in the water after victory is also likely to be curtailed.

That, anyway, is the prediction of some local observers in Brazil who fear that pollution in the waters around elite watersports venues in Rio will not be cleared up in time for the Olympic competitions in two years’ time.

Although a clean up of sorts is underway and three floating rubbish collection vessels can be seen clearing up plastic and various other detritus from some of the waterways, critics claim they do nothing to address unseen pollution in the form of faecal matter and other bugs in raw sewage that enter the water thanks to inadequate water treatment facilities for Rio’s more than 6 million inhabitants.

canoe kayak sprint slalom olympic games 2016 rio de janeiro brazil lake lagoa rodrigo de freitas sportscene icf pollutionAccording to a report by the Associated Press news agency in November, tests by Rio’s state government on waterways across the city over the past decade shows fecal coliform pollution levels far above those considered safe by Brazilian or US law.

Nearly all the beaches on Rio’s main bay have been abandoned by swimmers. Health experts warn of risks to athletes who come into contact with the water.

The authorities are focusing on floating rubbish, which is visible. An $840m investment is underway into Rio’s sewage treatment system – but currently just 30% of the city’s sewage is treated. the rest just flows into rivers, the bay and local lagoons.

canoe kayak sprint slalom olympic games 2016 rio de janeiro brazil lake lagoa rodrigo de freitas sportscene icf pollutionA local biologist and environmentalist, Mario Moscatelli, described the measures as ‘too little, too late’, likening the situation to a patient who needs chemotherapy rather than over-the-counter medicine.

“Manual collection is great for photos,” he said of the boats now picking up rubbish, “but it doesn’t even begin to address the root of the problem.”

The financial problems of Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, who bankrolled Rio’s successful Olympic and World Cup football bids and whose business empire has imploded over the past year, have merely compounded the situation.

He began a project in 2008 to clean up a major lagoon in the city, boasting that he would be swimming in it when the project finished. Unfortunately the project was only half-completed before he started to run out of money.

He had pledged to dredge it, insulate it from sewage – but there are today fewer fish than ever and the dredging, some say, disturbed the habitat. A full cleanup, according to Reuters, would require building underground ducts to ferry more seawater into the lagoon. That’s not expected to happen now – and an engineer involved in the project, Paulo Rosman from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro says: “It won’t be long before the lagoon is dirty again.”

Also read: "Fears that rubbish, sewage in Rio's Olympic waterways will pose health threat to athletes"