Flying Down to Rio for the Olympics? Don't Drink the Water!

News articles this Sunday are all full of dire warnings about the dangers facing tourists planning to enjoy the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro starting this Friday and running through August 21.  Copacabana Beach, Ipanema — paradise immortalized in film and song. Sun, sand, bikinis, waves crashing on the sandy shore - an alluring image of a tropical Eden - and a misleading one. 

Just days ahead of the Olympic Games the waterways of Rio de Janeiro are as filthy and uninviting as ever. Contaminated with raw human sewage, teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria, and the site of occasional body parts washed up on shore, not only are the 1,400 aquatic athletes at risk of becoming violently ill in water competitions, but tourists also face potentially serious health risks on the golden beaches.  An AP study shows viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the US. At these concentrations, swimmers and athletes who ingest just three teaspoons of water are almost certain to be infected with viruses that can cause stomach and respiratory illnesses and more rarely heart and brain inflammation according to the Las Vegas Sun. 

Athletes have been taking precautions taking antibiotics, bleaching oars, and donning plastic suits and gloves to limit contact with the water.  But what about the 300,000 - 500,000 foreigners expected to descend on Rio for the Olympics. How will they contend with high bacterial levels and sewage pollution?  Experts advise “don’t put your head under water.”  Swimmers who cannot heed that advice and ingest water through their mouths and noses risk getting violently ill.  Babies and toddlers playing in the sand risk dehydration and contact with hazardous viruses.  Tests over a 12 month period show levels at Ipanema Beach, the city’s most popular tourist spot, exceed those  that would close a beach in Europe or the United States according to the SD Union Tribune. Locals have built up immunity to pathogens in raw waste, but visitors are likely to be at risk.

In Rio the rich live on the flats; the poor live on the hillsides. And the poor are so poor that most don’t have modern waste management systems. So garbage and sewage roll down the hillsides in murky creeks into the world’s largest septic tank.  Sailing, rowing, canoeing, kayaking, open water swimming, triathlon  — about 1000 athletes — are all affected.

This is the first time they Olympic games have been held in South America. Water woes are not the only problem Rio faces. Besides unsafe beaches there are budget cuts, subways that may or may not be finished in the next 4 days, pestilence, corruption, and the Zika virus.  Athletes Bob and Mike Bryan posted on Facebook  this weekend they will not be competing because of health reasons — two of many who have cited similar reasons for dropping out of the games.

It should be interesting. We’re about to find out.


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Thanks to Shamus for showing us what fun we can have Dancing in Rio.