Recent reports claim that the water in which athletes in swimming and boating categories will be using "are rife with human sewage and present a serious health risk," according to ESPN. The same risk also applies to visitors of next summer's Games in Rio de Janeiro, the capital city of the South American host country.
"An AP analysis of water quality revealed 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," Associated Press reported, adding that the test is "the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites."
Previously, AP said that Brazilian officials have given assurances that the water will be safe for Olympians.
"The medical director of the International Olympic Committee said all was on track for providing safe competing venues. But neither the government nor the IOC tests for viruses, relying on bacteria testing only," AP pointed out.
Such a complication will affect athletic performance greatly as the ailments mentioned could affect Olympians for days and dash their dreams of Olympic achievement.
"This is by far the worst water quality we've ever seen in our sailing careers," Ivan Bulaja, an Austrian team's coach, told ESPN. "I am quite sure if you swim in this water and it goes into your mouth or nose that quite a lot of bad things are coming inside your body."
"Water pollution has long plagued Brazil's urban areas, where most sewage isn't collected, let alone treated," the sports news source said. "In Rio, much of the waste runs through open-air ditches to fetid streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites and blight the city's picture postcard beaches."
Despite pledges from the Brazilian authorities on improving waterways, the unpleasant smell coming from raw sewage remains strong and can even be detected upon arriving at Rio de Janeiro's airport.
"Prime beaches remain deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and periodic die-offs leave the Olympic lake littered with rotting fish," ESPN added.
The AP test, which covered five months, found waters unfit for water-based sporting events. Even an Olympic site assumed to have been cleaned up in the last few years turns out to have the most polluted waters among the Olympic sites. International experts reportedly said a clean up is too late at this point.
"Brazilians are exposed from childhood and build up immunities. But foreign athletes and tourists won't have that protection," ESPN noted.
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