Activists protest next to a mock coffin and a toilet symbolizing the burial of the Guanabara Bay
Activists alleging that decades of neglect and authorities’ repeated failure to make good on cleanup promises have effectively killed one of Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic waterways staged Saturday a symbolic burial of the Guanabara Bay, the sewage-filled waters where Olympic sailing competitions are to be held.
The demonstration was held on one of the city’s most polluted beaches, Botagofo, which is enveloped in a sulfuric stench, dotted by household trash and looks out over the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain. Protesters placed a garbage-filled mock coffin on the fetid sands, which they also draped with black cloth.
The event’s organizer, biologist Mario Moscatelli, said the event was among last-ditch efforts to force state authorities to keep their promise of cleaning up the bay before the Aug. 5-21 Games.
“This is an environmental crime,” said Moscatelli, wearing chest-high rubber coveralls and industrial goggles as he waded out into the dark waters to pluck out floating trash. “If this is happening here, at the picture postcard symbol of Rio, imagine what’s happening in the interior of the country.”
He added that around seven months ago he denounced Rio’s state water utility, Cedae, for flooding the bay with untreated sewage. Moscatelli has several videos shot near the site of the protest showing a tidal wave of sewage pouring out from a Cedae facility and into the waters of Botafogo Beach. As neither federal nor state prosecutors have taken any action on the matter, Moscatelli said he intended to bring his complaint again.
Sewage pollution has become a major issue in the run-up to the Olympics since last year, when The Associated Press published the results of an independent study showing astronomical viral levels from untreated sewage in all of Rio’s water venues, where 1,400 Olympic swimmers, rowers, sailors, canoeists and triathletes will compete.
In Rio’s Olympic bid, authorities pledged to drastically reduce the amount of sewage flowing into the bay before the games, but with very little progress to date, officials here now acknowledge the targets won’t be met.
Athletes have expressed alarm over not only the sewage but also floating trash,
which could potentially cause catastrophic accidents or cost teams medals. Earlier this week, the local O Globo daily ran a photo of what appeared to be a severed arm floating in the bay, but the details behind what happened were unknown. AP
Ship that ran aground off Antarctica freed, researchers safe
An icebreaker carrying researchers that ran aground off the coast of Antarctica was freed by crew Saturday and was afloat again, the Australian government said.
Some 37 researchers on board the Aurora Australis were taken safely ashore on Friday via a barge. The ship’s crew stayed behind and used a combination of internal ballast transfers and work boats during a rising tide to refloat the ship, the Australian Antarctic Division said in a statement online.
The icebreaker got stranded after it broke its mooring lines during a blizzard last week and ran aground on rocks in Horseshoe Harbor.
The ship was in the vicinity of Mawson research station, where crew will inspect the ship for damage. There was no sign of oil pollution, the statement said.
The Australian Antarctic Division said it was consulting with other national Antarctic programs to figure out a way to transport the researchers back to Australia.
On Friday, a spokesman for the U.S. National Science Foundation told the Times Union of Albany that a ski-equipped cargo plane from the 109th Airlift Wing would fly 2,250 kilometers across Antarctica to retrieve the researchers if weather permits. AP
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