Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay may be subject to independent water-quality tests by the sailing's governing body, according to the Associated Press.
The polluted Guanabara Bay will be the sailing venue for the 2016 Olympics and the site of Rio's first test event in 2 1/2 months, the AP reported.
In a letter dated May 7 to sports minister Aldo Rebelo, Rio's state environment secretary Carlos Francisco Portinho acknowledged in a best-case scenario that pollution flowing into the bay could be cut to "over 50 percent," which is well below the promised reduction of 80 percent, according to the AP.
Danish Olympian Allan Norregaard, a bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympics, said Guanabara was "the most polluted place I've ever been," while other sailors interviewed called it an "open sewer," according to the AP. Nearly 70 percent of Rio's sewage goes untreated into its waters with exposure to fecal matter, which can cause hepatitis A, dysentery, cholera and other diseases.
The visible problem involves old couches, tires and dead animals floating in the 148-square mile bay, the AP reported. State officials are using garbage boats to collect floating debris, with the detritus weaving giant blankets of human and industrial waste along noxious shorelines.
Fox said he hoped the International Olympic Committee would do independent testing, although the International Olympic Committee indicated it had no such plans, the AP reported.
"If the IOC are not conducting water-quality tests, then I think it is very likely the ISAF will," Fox said Monday in an email, according to the AP. "Certainly compared to most sailing venues, the water quality is very, very bad."
The bay and similar concerns about Rio's iconic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches add to the disarray plaguing South America's first Olympics, the AP reported.
"If someone picks up a bag, or hits a sofa or something like that, then clearly that is going to affect them in the race," Fox said, according to the AP.
