Dirty Olympics?

Today the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced that the bay where sailing will take place in the 2016 Summer Olympics will not be cleaned as once promised. Guanabara Bay, one of the world's most iconic expanses of water, suffers from a serious pollution problem despite its paradisiacal appearance on holiday brochures and tourism websites.

A cleaner area of the bay will play host to the races in just over two years, and Mr Paes has reassured athletes that they will face no risk in competing there. Beautiful beaches surround the bay, yet people are warned against bathing in the water because of the high levels of pollution. Search for Guanabara Bay in Google images and the engine kindly offers 'Guanabara Bay pollution' as a related search.

The bay is often compared to a sewer, and the Brazilian government's failure to completely clean it up will appall foreigners but will come as no surprise to the 10 million inhabitants of the metropolis.

It begs the questions of where the government's priorities lie. With the World Cup starting in Brazil in a matter of days, the pressure has been on to build stadiums and infrastructure as well as dealing with nationwide social issues. The tidying up and clearing out of dirt and crime ridden favelas has garnered much attention, maybe to the detriment of the environment. The International Olympic Committee does have a history of this; the situation brings back memories of Beijing 2008 and the controversy around the city's terrible smog problem.

What's more, the IOC's seemingly benevolent motives for bringing the Olympic Games to Rio are now even being called into question...

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-27752499