Rio’s (trashed) Olympic waterways

Biologist Mario Moscatelli takes photographs from trash floating on the polluted waters of the Canal do Fundao in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Biologist Mario Moscatelli takes photographs from trash floating on the polluted waters of the Canal do Fundao in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Published Nov 22, 2013

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Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro's endless beaches and lush tropical forest will be a photographer's dream during the 2016 Olympics. But zoom in on the likes of once-pristine Guanabara Bay, and the picture is of household trash and raw sewage.

In the neon green waters around the site of the future Olympic Park, the average fecal pollution rate is 78 times that of the Brazilian government's “satisfactory” limit - and 195 times the level considered safe in the US.

Nearly 70 percent of Rio's sewage goes untreated, meaning runoff from its many slums and poor neighbourhoods drain into waters soon to host some of the world's best athletes. - Sapa-AP

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